The Invisible Man Within Us
Pathology Underlying Therapy
GA 221
11 February 1923, Dornach
Translator Unknown
When we consider the human being, two beings can be clearly distinguished. You will recall that in various recent studies I have explained how the physical organization of the human being is spiritually prepared during the pre-earthly life. In a certain sense it is then sent down as spiritual organization before the human being enters with his ego into earthly existence. This spiritual organization continues to be active essentially during the entire physical life on earth, but it does not express itself during physical earthly life as something outwardly visible. The outwardly visible aspect of this spiritual organization is essentially cast off at birth, consisting of the embryonic membranes that envelop the human embryo during its development—the chorion, the allantois, the amnion, the yolk sac—everything, in other words, that is cast away as physical organization when the human being attains a free physical existence on leaving the womb.
Yet this pre-earthly organization continues to be active in the human being throughout his entire life. It is somewhat different in character, however, from the body soul-spirit efficacy of the human being during his physical earthly life. And this is what I would like to speak about today.
In a certain sense, then, we have an invisible man within us. It is contained in our growth-forces as well as in those hidden forces through which nourishment occurs. It is contained in everything in which the human being is not consciously active. Its work extends into this unconscious activity, right into the growth activity, into the daily restoration of forces through nutrition. And this work is the aftereffect of the pre-earthly existence, which in earthly existence becomes a body of forces that is active in us but does not come to conscious manifestation. Today I would like to describe to you the character of this invisible man, which we all carry within us, contained in our forces: growth and nutrition, as well as in our reproductive forces.
Proceeding schematically, we can say that this invisible man also contains the ego, the astral organization, the etheric organization (and therefore the body of formative forces), and the physical organization. Of course in the human being after birth the physical organization of the invisible man is inserted into the other human physical organization, but in the course of today's considerations you will begin to understand how the invisible man can lay hold of the physical organization.
Drawn schematically it would look like this (see drawing, [right]). In this invisible man we have first the ego organization (yellow); then we have the astral organization (red), then the etheric organization (blue), and finally we have the physical organization (white). This physical organization of the invisible man penetrates only into the nutrition and growth processes, into everything where the lower man, as we have often called it—the metabolic-limb man—manifests itself in the human organization. All currents, all effects of forces in this invisible man proceed from the ego organization into the astral, then into the etheric, and on into the physical organization (see arrow). They then spread out in the physical organization. In the human embryo, what we call here the physical organization of the invisible man is present in the embryonic envelopes, in the embryonic sheaths, the chorion, the allantois, the amnion, and the yolk sac. In the human being after birth, however, the physical organization of the invisible man is contained in the nourishing and restorative processes in the human being. Thus viewed from outside, this physical organization is not separated from the other physical organization of the human being but is united with it.
In a certain sense, then, in addition to this invisible man we have the visible human being that we encounter after birth. I will sketch this visible human being right next to the invisible one (see drawing). This is how the mutual interpenetration of the physical and superphysical human being would appear during earthly life. During earthly life there is a continuous stream from ego to astral body, to etheric body, to physical body (see arrows). In the human being after birth, this stream flows into the metabolic-limb organization, in the forces of our outer movement, and also in the inner forces of movement that carry ingested food into the entire organization up to the brain.
In addition to this, however, there is a direct intervention of forces that enter the entire human being directly from the ego. An activity thus penetrates us, a stream that flows directly from the ego into the nerve-sense organization without first passing through the astral body and etheric body; instead this stream lays hold of man's physical body directly. Naturally this penetration is strongest in the head, where most of the sense organs are concentrated, but I should actually draw this stream in such a way that it spreads out over the skin-senses, over the entire human being, just as I would have to draw a stream for the course of food taken in by the mouth. Schematically, however, my drawing is quite correct.
In the human head, then, we have one organization that flows up from below, proceeding from the ego but passing through the astral, etheric, and physical and then to the ego. We have another stream that enters the physical directly and flows down. If we examine the human organism, we arrive at the insight that this unmediated stream, which enters the physical directly from the ego and then branches out over the whole body, proceeds along the nerve pathways. Thus when the human nerves spread out in the organism, the outwardly visible nerve strand is the visible sign of these outspreading streams that enter the entire organism directly from the ego, proceeding from the ego into the physical organization without mediation. The ego organization at first runs along the pathways of the nerves. This has an essentially destructive effect on the organism. There the spirit enters directly into physical matter, and wherever the spirit enters physical matter directly a destructive process occurs, so that along the nerve pathways, proceeding from the senses, a delicate death process spreads out through the human organism.
The other stream, which in the invisible man goes through the astral, etheric, and physical bodies, can be traced in the human being by following the blood pathways up to the senses. Thus when we examine the human being as we encounter him here on earth, we can say that the ego flows in the blood. But the ego flows in such a way that it first ensouls its forces through the astral organization and through the etheric and physical organizations. After first taking along the astral and etheric organizations, the ego streams through the physical organization in the blood from below upward. Thus the entire invisible man flows in the blood as a constructive process, as a growth process, as the process that constantly renews the human being by working through his food. This stream flows in the human being from below upward (speaking schematically), pours itself into the senses, and therefore also into the skin, and encounters the other stream which, from the ego, takes hold of the physical organization directly.
Actually, however, this whole matter is even more complicated, because we must also consider the breathing process. In the breathing process, the ego flows into the astral body, but then it goes directly into the lungs along with the air. Thus something from the super-sensible man also underlies the breathing process, but not in the same way as occurs in the nerve-sense process, where the ego takes hold of the physical organization directly. In the breathing process, the ego permeates itself with the astral forces, taking hold of oxygen and only then, no longer as pure ego organization but as ego-astral organization, does it take hold of the organism with the help of the breathing process. It could also be said that the breathing process is a weakened process of destruction, a weakened death process. The actual death process is the nerve-sense process, and a weakened process of destruction, a weakened death process, is the breathing process.
This is then confronted by the process in which the ego further strengthens itself by streaming up to the etheric body and only then being taken up. This process, taking place mainly in the super-sensible so that it cannot be traced by the usual physiology, is active in the pulse; there it is still outwardly perceptible. It is a restorative process, not as strong as the direct metabolic-restorative process, but rather a weakened restorative process. As we have seen, the breathing process is to a certain extent a destructive process. Our life would be much shorter if we absorbed more oxygen. The more the carbonic acid formation process of the blood counters the absorption of oxygen in the breathing process, the longer our life will be.
Thus everything interacts within the organism, and in order really to understand what is going on, one needs to understand the super-sensible human being, because its outwardly visible aspects were cast off with the embryonic membranes and are active in the human being after birth only through invisible forces. These forces can be clearly designated, however, if we proceed from the anthroposophical knowledge of the human being.
If, for example, we look into the eye with this anthroposophical knowledge, we see that the blood process courses through the eye in fine ramifications. This is taken hold of by the nerve process going in the opposite direction. The blood process always moves toward the periphery in the human being, moving centrifugally; the nerve process, which is in fact a breakdown process, is always directed centripetally, toward man's inside. All processes that occur in the human being are metamorphoses of these two processes.
If the interaction of pulse and breathing is properly coordinated, then the lower man is properly connected to the upper man. If this is the case and no external injuries intervene, an individual should be basically healthy. Only when breakdown predominates will destructive processes encroach on the activities in the organism. The human being becomes ill because something foreign accumulates in his organism that has not been worked through in the right way, something containing excessive breakdown forces, containing too much of what is related to the physical nature that surrounds the human being in his earthly environment.
The spiritual element's direct penetration of the organism by way of the ego brings about those processes that produce pathological occurrences, foreign formations. These foreign formations may not manifest immediately in physical symptoms, but they may manifest in the fluid and even in the airy aspect of the human being. They can develop, and if they are not countered by a healing process that flows from below along the pathways of the blood, they cannot dissolve. These formations have the tendency to form tumor-like accumulations in the body and then to fragment within. If the blood-formation process confronts them in the right way, they can dissolve and again become part of the general life of the body. But when a damming up is brought about by an excessive breakdown process from above downward, it takes hold of one of the organs. Foreign bodies are then formed, which are first exudative, tumor-like, but then have the tendency to run their course like the external processes of earthly nature and fall to pieces. In this case we need to understand that not enough of the super-sensible human being is taken up along the path I have drawn here next to the physical human being.
You see, one cannot speak about healing directly through human activity, because the moment that too much activity is developed from the nerve-sense organization, in a centripetal direction—when too many of the environmental processes are “stuffed” into man so that these tumor-like formations develop somewhere, which then decompose—in that moment the other system, which runs along the blood vessels, becomes rebellious. It wants to bring about healing, wants to penetrate the organism with the proper astral and etheric forces that can come from below. It wants to prevent the ego, or the ego working with the astral body, from acting alone. The healer has to take into account this revolutionary principle in the human organism, and healing consists of supporting, by external means, what is already present in the organism as an original healing force.
When a tumor-like formation arises, it is a symptom of the ego activity from the stream of the invisible man not penetrating in the right way from out of the etheric body. The ego activity does assert itself, but may at times be unable to approach the tumor. We might then support the etheric body in this direction so that it can become active. It can become active in the right way if it is first permeated by the ego and astral body and then becomes active. That which comes from above and has not taken up etheric activity, but at most ego and astral activity, poisons the organism. When the etheric body approaches this, when we counter the ego and astral activity with etheric activity, we support the healing process already present and striving to be active in the human organization. We only have to know, in such a case, by what means the etheric organization, permeated in the right way by astral and ego organization, can penetrate the body. In other words, in such a case we simply need to help the etheric organization with a remedy. Therefore we must know which remedy will make the etheric organization stronger in such a case, so that its constructive force opposes the excessively destructive force. Thus we can see that we will never comprehend the pathology that underlies therapy unless we take into account the invisible man.
It may also be, however, that when a person is born he does not penetrate strongly enough with his ego and astral organization—his soul-spiritual organization—into the physical organization. The soul-spiritual organization does not push its way into the physical organization suffciently. Then in this individual there will continually be a preponderance of the growth forces active from below upward, which are not given sufficient heaviness through integration with the physical organization. An individual can be born in such a way that the invisible man takes insufficient hold of his physical body, refusing to penetrate into the blood process in the right way. Then man's spirit cannot approach the blood process. In such individuals we can already see the consequences of this from childhood on. They remain pale and thin, or, because of the predominating growth forces, grow radiply tall. The the soul-spiritual cannot properly enter the organism. And because the body refuses to take up the soul-spiritual, our goal must be to weaken the excessively strong etheric body where the activity has become too strong. In such pale, lanky individuals we must strive to contain the hypertrophic, excessively active forces in the etheric body, restraining them to their proper degree. By this means we can bring heaviness into the body; the blood, for example, by receiving the necessary iron content, receives the appropriate heaviness. Then the etheric body is not as active in an upward direction, and its effect on the upper man is weakened.
In such individuals another condition might be noticed: what I would like to call the night processes predominate over the day processes. You could say that at night the physical-etheric organization of every normal person refuses to absorb the soul-spiritual. This night organization of a person lying in bed—not of the invisible man, who is outside—is too strong in those people who have a sort of inborn consumption, as I have just described. In such cases, the day organization must be supported. This means that it has to be given a certain heaviness by encouraging the breakdown processes. If one enhances the breakdown processes and inwardly there appears that which hardens and finally falls to pieces (in healing, of course, this must happen only to a small extent) then the overflowing force of the etheric body is restrained and consumption is held back.
In this way, out of knowledge of the entire human being, we can comprehend the curious interaction between health and disease, This interaction is always present and is essentially balanced out by what occurs between pulse and breath. If we then come to know by what outer means one or the other can be enhanced, it will be possible to support the natural healing processes that are always present, but I would say, not always able to arise.
What outer means we use is not such a simple matter, for a totally foreign process cannot be introduced into the human organism. When some kind of foreign process is introduced, it is at once transformed into its opposite within the organism. If you eat something, the food contains certain chemical forces. In absorbing them, the organism transforms them at once into their opposite. This is necessary. If, for example, the food maintained its external character too long after being absorbed, then it would begin to break down as it does in outer nature and would thus bring destructive and death-bringing breakdown processes into the human being.
You can pursue the details of the processes that I have developed for you here from the entire human being. Let us assume, for example, that you stick yourself with a foreign object like a splinter. Your body can react in two ways. Suppose you cannot extract the foreign object so that it remains inside you. Then two things can happen. The constructive force active in the flowing blood surrounds the foreign object. It gathers around the object, but in doing so it moves away from its own customary position. This immediately leads to a preponderance of the nerve activity there. Then an exudate-like formation begins to encapsulate the foreign object. When this happens, the following takes place in that part of the body: whereas usually, when there is not a foreign object in that spot, the etheric body penetrates the physical body in a certain way, in this situation the etheric body is unable to penetrate the foreign object; instead, within this area a bubble will form that is filled out only with the etheric. We have within us a small portion of the body that contains a foreign object and where a small portion of the etheric body is not organized by the physical. In this case it is important to strengthen the astral body in that spot to such an extent that it can be effective in the small portion of the etheric body without the help of the physical body. Through this encapsulation our body has actually made use of the destructive forces, separating out these destructive forces in a small section of the body and then incorporating into it the healing etheric body. This will then have to be supported by the astral and the ego through an appropriate treatment.
In such a case we have to say that, in a certain sense, what lies above the physical in the human being has to become strong enough to be active without the physical in this small part of the human organization. This always happens in what is called a healing of some foreign intrusion in the human being, for example when a person gets stuck with a splinter and it becomes encapsulated. In this part of his body man's whole organization is moved a little bit upward. It can also happen that something foreign is formed purely out of the organism. This must be regarded in the same way.
A completely different process could take place, however, if we have been stuck by a splinter. It could be that the nerve activity surrounding the splinter gets stronger and predominates over the blood activity. Then the nerve activity, in which the ego is active (or possibly the ego strengthened by the astral body), stimulates the blood activity. The nerve-sense activity, which goes through the whole body, stimulates the blood activity and does not permit an exudate to form. Instead it stimulates a secretory process, leading to the formation of pus (white). And because the nerves are pushing out (arrows), the pus is also driven to the periphery by the push that goes through the nerve tracts in their destructive activity. The splinter comes out and the area heals over.
You can see, then, that if the splinter is too deep in the organism, so that the pushing force of the breakdown system, the nerve-sense system, is insufficient to bring it to the outside, then the constructive activity in the blood vessels will be stronger and lead to encapsulation. If the splinter is closer to the surface, then the nerve-pushing force, the destructive force, will be stronger. It will excite or stimulate what wants to become an exudate so that it will make use of the breakdown channels that are always present anyway, leading to the outside, and the whole area will suppurate. Therefore we can actually say that we carry in us, in incipient form, in the moment of coming into being, the tendency for our organism to harden toward the inside in a centripetal direction and to dissolve again toward the outside in a centrifugal direction. In the normal processes of the human body, however, the tumor-forming force that is directed inward and the suppurative-inflammatory force that is directed toward the periphery are in equilibrium. Generally our inflammatory process is strong enough to overcome the tumefying force tending toward breakdown. Only when one process is stronger than the other will a real tumefaction or a real inflammation develop.
You must not be under the impression, of course, that everything is as easy to comprehend in reality as it seems when matters have to be simplified in a schematic presentation. In reality the processes interpenetrate one another. In fact, you can observe that when the inflammatory forces are strong in the human being there will be febrile phenomena. These are essentially the result of excessively strong constructive processes located in the blood. With the force of selfhood (Eigenkraft) that frequently develops in a person with a fever, it could be possible to provide quite a bit of strength to a second person, if the means were available for diverting the forces from one to the other in the right way.
On the other hand, where the breakdown forces are working strongly, cooling phenomena occur. The presence of these phenomena is not as easy to substantiate as the febrile phenomena, but these two types of phenomena alternate so that in reality we are always dealing with interpenetrating activities that simply have to be distinguished if we wish to comprehend what is going on.
A question often arises concerning poisons that occur in nature, for example the poison in belladonna, the deadly nightshade: how are actual poisons different from ordinary substances that we find in our environment and use for food? When we eat food, something is introduced into the organism that is formed in outer nature similarly to the way in which our invisible man is formed. We take into us something that proceeds from a spiritual activity, enters an astral activity, then an etheric activity, and finally a physical activity. In nature such an activity is directed from above downward; it acts upon the earth from the periphery, as it were. This activity is related to our inner ego activity, which is a purely spiritual activity. If what I have depicted schematically flows down, but transforms itself via the astral, then further via the etheric, then going down into the physical, then the plant as a rule takes up such an activity. The plant grows toward this activity from below upward and takes up this etheric activity, which, however, already rightly contains from above the astral and ego activity, i.e., the soul and spiritual activity.
It is also possible for something else to take place, as it does with a poison. Poisonous substances have the peculiarity that they do not make use of the etheric as do the normal green substances in the plant; instead they turn directly to the astral, so that the astral enters into this substance. With belladonna, the fruit becomes especially greedy and is not satisfied by taking up just the etheric; instead the fruit takes up the astral directly, before this astral has taken up the life-forces through the etheric in streaming downward. You could say that in such cases the astral is continually dripping from the world-periphery directly down to the earth instead of entering the etheric. And such drops of the astral being, which have not gone through the ether atmosphere of the earth in the right way, can, for example, be found in the poison of the deadly nightshade. We also have this cosmic astral element dripping down into the plant in the poison of the Jimsonweed fruit, in hyoscyamus (henbane), etc.
What therefore lives in this plant substance, for example in the deadly nightshade, is related to the activity that enters the human nerves and circulation of oxygen directly from the ego or the astral body. Thus by taking in the poison of the deadly nightshade, we get a significant strengthening of the breakdown processes in us, those processes that usually enter the physical body directly from the ego. The human ego is not generally strong enough to tolerate such a strengthening of breakdown processes. If the opposite activity is too great, however—the activity that proceeds from below upward in the blood vessels—one can counter it with such breakdown processes from nature. Atropine, the poison of the deadly nightshade, can thus be used in small doses to counteract excessive growth processes in the human being. The moment there is too much of this poison, however, we cannot talk about an equilibrium anymore. Then the growth processes are pushed back and the human being is benumbed by a spiritual activity that he is not yet able to tolerate with his ego. He will be able to tolerate such a spiritual activity perhaps only in future conditions, in the Venus and Vulcan stages of evolution. This is why the peculiar symptoms of poisoning occur. First the point of origin of the activity effective in the blood is undermined; then the gastric manifestations arise that appear after the ingestion of deadly nightshade poison; then the forces working from below upward are strongly prevented from doing so in the right way; finally complete unconsciousness occurs with the destruction of the human being from the side of the breakdown processes.
Thus we can trace the effect of such a substance in the human organism if we know the spiritual content of a substance we have absorbed. This can best be studied in plants. Knowledge of the human organism must be joined with a proper knowledge of outer nature. We must come to know what lives in individual plants. Then we will also know how the different plants affect the human being, in dietary prescriptions for example.
Then we will really be able to achieve something if the proper social conditions are brought about at the same time so that these things can really be applied. Today, even if we know something, we are usually unable to do anything, because our social conditions are in no way adapted to the knowledge of nature. The knowledge of nature is abstracted, is driven into the abstract so that we cannot grasp the human being's real position in the whole universe. It would not yet be possible on a large scale, for example, for us to ensure that individuals who might need it could receive a certain plant substance in some sort of rhythm. In order to make this possible in a comprehensive way, our scientific medicine must take on a different character. The outer arrangements in all social life need to be related to what can be known about the human being's relationship to surrounding nature.
Certainly a great deal can be done in isolated instances. We can prepare roots by boiling them for someone in whom the breakdown processes proceeding from the head are too strong. We can decoct certain roots that are known to contain substances that have drawn the spiritual, the astral, and the etheric in the right way into the physical in the process of root formation. Through introducing substances from the process of root formation into the human organism and bringing them to activity in the organism, a person receives something that goes up to the finest ramifications of the blood vessels at the outermost periphery, going into the head. By doing this we can call forth something to counteract the excessively strong breakdown processes of the nervous system. But one needs to have an exact conception of the changes that plant substances from the root undergo when taken in through the mouth and worked through in order to go to the outermost periphery of the head organization or skin organization.
In other cases we would have to know how substances taken from the flower act in the human organism. These substances are already a little shaky in their relationship to the etheric, they have already taken up the astral to a significant extent. In a certain sense they already approach the poisonous, though only slightly. We would have to know that when these substances are added to baths, and thereby brought into the organism in a completely different way, we can stimulate the excessively weak upbuilding organization that lies in the blood vessels. We would then counteract from outside the influence from the breakdown activity.
It is similar if we wish to pursue the inner effectiveness of injected substances. There we are essentially trying to strengthen the upbuilding processes so that a proper equilibrium with the breakdown processes is established.
This is why, particularly when giving injections, we must always observe how the breakdown processes react. We will not get the right effect if we cannot see how the breakdown processes first resist and then only gradually enter into the upbuilding process in the right way. When injecting something, therefore, we may notice that slight visual disturbances and buzzing in the ears arise, because at first the breakdown processes refuse to enter into the right equilibrium with the strengthened upbuilding processes. But when such symptoms appear they provide a guarantee that we are indeed intervening in the processes.
You see, anthroposophy is really not concerned with furnishing sectarian aunt-and-uncle gatherings with schemes they can argue about, schemes describing how the human being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. Rather it is very seriously concerned with comprehending the human being and his relationship to the world, with bringing the spiritual into everything material. And if anthroposophy really wants to secure its place in the world, it must be understood that it is able to pursue the spiritual into the material. As long as we merely occupy ourselves with aunt-and-uncle gatherings in sectarian circles, with squabbling over the division of the human being, we will be engaged in conflict about all sorts of other sectarian things. The moment we can really show how anthroposophy touches on all other knowledge, casts light on all other earthly knowledge—just as astrology illuminated earthly processes in earlier times—then anthroposophy will be something that can take hold of modern civilization. Then truly constructive progress may begin in human civilization, even in the face of the destructive processes originating in older times.
Such seriousness must be combined with what could be called one's commitment to anthroposophy. Certainly not everyone can always participate so actively that he himself discovers, for example, how belladonna on one side and chlorine on the other work in the human organism. For each individual to discover this is not the point; instead what is important is for an understanding to arise in wider circles, a common feeling for how what is therapeutic for the human being can be gained from an anthroposophical knowledge of the earth and the human being. In Waldorf education, we would not expect that every person could be a teacher, or at least teachers of children from elementary school on. We do expect, however, that there be general understanding of how educational principles are established out of knowledge of the human being and the world. Anthroposophy needs to be met with understanding. It would be wrong to believe that everyone should know everything, but the activity of an anthroposophical community should consist of building a general understanding, based on healthy common sense, for what anthroposophy is striving to realize for the health and future of humanity.
Entry in Rudolf Steiner's Notebook, February 11, 1923
The ether becomes similar to that of the nerve-sense system: A. The ether becomes similar to that of the metabolic system: B.
Pus = the organic (etheric) permeated by outer, centrifugal astrality—on the path to the outside
Congealed exudate = the (etheric) organic permeated by inner, centripetal astrality—on the path of disappearing out of the physical world—
In healing, the organism only continues a process that is already active in the daily defense against outer processes penetrating into the human being, which are poisoning—
The lower system (which accomplishes this) separates the outer, after it has permeated the same with centrifugal forces, as they are active in the growth of plants—as they are present in sleep. What poisons is the centripetally active [force]—of the nerve-sense system—which leads the outer world inward—it leads the outer world inward after cooling it (making it into mere form), so that through it the spiritual penetrates inward directly.
The inhibited inhalation, nourishing, the excessively strong day processes; the excessive exhalation, digestion, the excessively strong night processes.
The body has not taken up the spirit, excessively strong night processes = one is feverish: a formation of inner softening—pus.
The body takes up the spirit too strongly, excessively strong day processes = one freezes: a formation of inner hardening—inward exudate-like—fragmenting.
VI. Der Unsichtbare Mensch in Uns. Das Der Therapie Zugrunde Liegende Pathologische
In dem Menschen, wie er vor uns steht, sind eigentlich deutlich zwei Wesenheiten zu unterscheiden. Sie erinnern sich, daß ich in verschiedenen Betrachtungen der letzten Zeit ausführte, wie die physische Organisation des Menschen geistig vorbereitet wird im vorirdischen Leben, wie sie dann gewissermaßen als geistige Organisation heruntergeschickt wird, bevor der Mensch selbst mit seinem Ich in das irdische Dasein hereinkommt. Diese geistige Organisation ist im wesentlichen auch während des ganzen physischen Erdenlebens nachwirkend, nur drückt sie sich während des physischen Erdenlebens nicht in etwas äußerlich Sichtbarem aus. Das äußerlich Sichtbare wird bei der Geburt im wesentlichen abgestoßen, denn es sind die Hüllen, in welche der Menschenkeim während der Embryonalzeit eingehüllt ist: Chorion und Amnionsack, die Allantois, alles das, was also abgestoßen wird als physische Organisation, wenn der Mensch aus dem Mutterleibe heraus ein freies physisches Dasein gewinnt. Aber tätig bleibt im Menschen diese vorirdische Organisation sein ganzes Leben lang. Nur ist ihre Beschaffenheit etwas anders als die Leibes-Seelen-Geistwirksamkeit des Menschen während des physischen Erdenlebens. Und darüber möchte ich heute etwas sprechen.
Wir haben also gewissermaßen in uns einen unsichtbaren Menschen, der enthalten ist in unseren Wachstumskräften, auch in denjenigen verborgenen Kräften, wodurch die Ernährung zustande kommt, der enthalten ist in alledem, worüber sich die bewußte Tätigkeit des Menschen eigentlich nicht erstreckt. Aber auch in diese unbewußte Tätigkeit, bis in die Wachstumstätigkeit, bis in die tägliche Wiederherstellung der Kräfte durch die Ernährung, geht [seine] Wirksamkeit hinein. Und diese Wirksamkeit ist eben die Nachwirkung des vorirdischen Daseins, das im irdischen Dasein ein Kräfteleib wird, der in uns wirkt, aber der nicht eigentlich zur bewußten Offenbarung kommt. Diesen unsichtbaren Menschen, den wir alle in uns tragen, der in unseren Wachstums-, in unseren Ernährungskräften steckt, der auch in den Reproduktionskräften steckt, diesen unsichtbaren Menschen möchte ich Ihnen zunächst seiner Beschaffenheit nach schildern.
Wir können das schematisch tun, indem wir uns sagen: Auch in diesem unsichtbaren Menschen sind enthalten das Ich, die astralische Organisation, die ätherische Organisation, also der Bildekräfteleib, und die physische Organisation. Natürlich, diese physische Organisation steckt bei dem geborenen Menschen in der anderen physischen Organisation drinnen, aber Sie werden im Laufe der heutigen Betrachtungen das Eingreifen des unsichtbaren Menschen in die physische Organisation erfassen können.
Wenn ich schematisch zeichne, so muß ich es so zeichnen (siehe Zeichnung links):
Wir haben in diesem unsichtbaren Menschen zunächst die Ich-Organisation (gelb), wir haben dann die astralische Organisation (rot), dann die ätherische Organisation (blau), und wir haben die physische Organisation (weiß). Diese physische Organisation, die in Betracht kommt für den unsichtbaren Menschen, greift nur ein in die ErnährungsWachstumsprozesse, in alles das, was von dem unteren Menschen, wie wir ihn öfter geschildert haben, von dem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen sich in der menschlichen Organisation geltend macht. Alle Strömungen, alle Kräftewirkungen in diesem unsichtbaren Menschen gehen so vor sich, daß sie ausgehen von der Ich-Organisation, dann in die astralische, in die ätherische und in die physische Organisation gehen, und in der physischen Organisation sich dann ausbreiten (siehe Pfeil in Zeichnung Seite 76). Beim Menschenkeim ist dasjenige, was hier physische Organisation genannt wird, in den Häuten, in den Hüllen des Embryo vorhanden, im Chorion, in der Allantois, in dem Amnionsack und so weiter. Beim geborenen Menschen ist all das, was hier physische Organisation genannt wird, enthalten in denjenigen Vorgängen, welche Ernährungs-Wiederherstellungsvorgänge im ganzen Menschen sind. Also nach außen hin ist diese physische Organisation hier (siehe Zeichnung rechts) von der anderen physischen Organisation des Menschen nicht getrennt, sondern mit ihr vereinigt.
Wir haben gewissermaßen neben diesem unsichtbaren Menschen dann den sichtbaren Menschen, den wir vor uns stehen haben, wenn der Mensch eben geboren ist. Diesen sichtbaren Menschen will ich gewissermaßen daneben zeichnen. So also würde die gegenseitige Durchdringung des physischen und des überphysischen Menschen während des Erdenlebens sein. Nun ist es aber während des Erdenlebens so, daß fortwährend diese Strömung stattfindet (Pfeil): vom Ich zum astralischen Leib, zum ätherischen Leib, zum physischen Leib. Diese Strömung verläuft beim geborenen Menschen in der Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselorganisation, in alledem, was Bewegungskräfte sind, und was die innerlichen Bewegungskräfte sind, welche die aufgenommenen Nahrungsmittel in den ganzen Organismus tragen bis zum Gehirn hinauf.
Dagegen gibt es auch ein unmittelbares Eingreifen, eine Kräftewirkung, die nun von dem Ich direkt in den ganzen Menschen hineingeht (siehe farbige Zeichnung r). Wir haben also ein Eingreifen einer Tätigkeit, einer Strömung gewissermaßen, die direkt von dem Ich aus in die Nerven-Sinnesorganisation hineingeht, die also nicht erst durchgeht durch den Astralleib, durch den Ätherleib, sondern die direkt in den Physischen Leib des Menschen eingreift. Natürlich ist dieses Eingreifen ja nur am stärksten am Kopfe, wo die meisten Sinnesorgane konzentriert sind. Aber ich müßte diese Strömung eigentlich so zeichnen, daß sie sich zum Beispiel über den Hautsinn über den ganzen Menschen wiederum ausbreitet, gerade wie ich auch eine Strömung zeichnen müßte für das Einnehmen der Nahrungsmittel durch den Mund. Aber schematisch ist die Zeichnung so, wie ich sie eben gemacht habe, durchaus richtig. Wir haben also im menschlichen Haupte eine solche Organisation, die von unten heraufströmt, die vom Ich ausgeht, aber durchgegangen ist durch das Astralische, Ätherische, Physische und dann zum Ich heraufströmt. Wir haben eine andere Strömung, die direkt in das Physische hineingeht und hinunterströmt.
Wenn wir den menschlichen Organismus prüfen, dann kommen wir dazu, einzusehen, daß diese unmittelbare Strömung, die also vom Ich direkt in das Physische hineingeht und sich dann im Körper verzweigt, entlang den Nervenbahnen geht (siehe farbige Zeichnung 1, gelb). So daß also, wenn die menschlichen Nerven im Organismus sich ausbreiten, der äußere sichtbare Nervenstrang das äußere sichtbare Zeichen ist für die Ausbreitung derjenigen Strömung, welche direkt vom Ich nach dem ganzen Organismus geht, aber unmittelbar vom Ich aus in die physische Organisation hineingeht. Längs der Nervenbahnen läuft zunächst die Ich-Organisation. Diese ist für den Organismus eine wesentlich zerstörende. Denn da kommt der Geist direkt hinein in die physische Materie. Und überall, wo der Geist direkt in die physische Materie hineinkommt, liegt Zerstörungsprozeß vor, so daß also längs der Nervenbahnen, von den Sinnen ausgehend, ein feiner Todesprozeß im menschlichen Organismus sich ausbreitet.
Diejenige Strömung, welche zuerst im unsichtbaren Menschen nach dem astralischen, ätherischen und dem physischen Leibe geht, die können wir im Menschen verfolgen, wenn wir die Blutbahnen bis zu den Sinnen hin verfolgen (siehe farbige Zeichnung 1, rot), so daß wir also, wenn wir den Menschen, so wie er vor uns steht, prüfen, sagen können: In dem Blute strömt das Ich. - Aber das Ich strömt so, daß es zuerst seine Kräfte durchseelt hat durch die Astralorganisation, durch die ätherische und durch die physische Organisation. Das Ich strömt, nachdem es zuerst die astralische, die ätherische Organisation mitgenommen hat, durch die physische Organisation im Blute von unten hinauf. Es strömt also der ganze unsichtbare Mensch in dem Blutvorgang als ein aufbauender, als ein Wachstumsvorgang, als derjenige Vorgang, der immer von neuem den Menschen erzeugt durch die Verarbeitung der Nahrungsmittel. Dieser Strom strömt im Menschen von unten nach oben, können wir schematisch sagen, ergießt sich dann in die Sinne, also auch in die Haut, und kommt derjenigen Strömung entgegen, die direkt vom Ich aus die physische Organisation ergreift. Allerdings ist die Sache in Wirklichkeit noch komplizierter. In Wirklichkeit müssen wir auch auf den Atmungsvorgang schen.
Beim Atmungsvorgang ist es so, daß das Ich allerdings bis in den astralischen Leib strömt, dann aber direkt in die Lunge mit Hilfe der Luft. So daß den Atmungsvorgängen auch etwas vom übersinnlichen Menschen zugrunde liegt, aber so, daß nicht wie beim Nerven-Sinnesprozeß das Ich direkt eingreift in die physische Organisation, sondern das Ich sich noch durchtränkt mit den Astralkräften, den Sauerstoff ergreift, und dann erst, jetzt nicht als reine Ich-Organisation, sondern als Ich-Astralorganisation, in den Organismus eingreift mit Hilfe des Atmungsprozesses (siehe farbige Zeichnung ı, dritter Pfeil). Man könnte also sagen: Der Atmungsprozeß ist ein abgeschwächter Zerstörungsprozeß, ein abgeschwächter Todesprozeß. Der eigentliche Todesprozeß ist der Nerven-Sinnesprozeß, ein abgeschwächter Zerstörungsprozeß ist der Atmungsprozeß.
Ihm steht dann gegenüber derjenige Prozeß, wo das Ich sich auch noch verstärkt dadurch, daß seine Strömung bis zum Ätherleib geht und dann erst aufgenommen wird (siehe farbige Zeichnung ı, vierter Pfeil). Dieser Prozeß, der schon sehr stark im Übersinnlichen liegt, so daß er von der gewöhnlichen Physiologie eben nicht verfolgt werden kann, wirkt im Pulsschlage noch äußerlich vernehmbar. Das ist ein Wiederherstellungsprozeß, der nicht so stark ist wie der direkte Stoffwechsel-Herstellungsprozeß, sondern ein abgeschwächter Wiederherstellungsprozeß. Und er begegnet sich dann mit dem Atmungsprozesse.
Der Atmungsprozeß ist bis zu einem gewissen Grade ein Zerstötungsprozeß. Würden wir mehr Sauerstoff aufnehmen, so würde unser Leben viel kürzer sein. Unser Leben wird in dem Maße verlängert, je mehr der Kohlensäurebildungsprozeß durch das Blut entgegenkommt der Aufnahme des Sauerstoffes im Atmungsprozeß.
So wirkt alles innerlich im Organismus zusammen, und man kann eigentlich dasjenige, was in dem Organismus vor sich geht, nur verstehen, wenn man zu diesem Verständnis den übersinnlichen Menschen zu Hilfe nimmt, weil der ja äußerlich sichtbar mit den Hüllen des Embryos abgestreift wird und im geborenen Menschen eigentlich nur noch durch unsichtbare Kräfte wirkt, die wir aber genau bezeichnen können, wenn wir von der anthroposophischen Menschenerkenntnis ausgehen.
Wenn wir mit anthroposophischer Menschenerkenntnis zum Beispiel in das Auge sehen, so haben wir, im Auge ankommend, den Blutprozeß, der in den feinen Verzweigungen verläuft (siehe farbige Zeichnung 2, rot) und der dann ergriffen wird von dem Nervenprozeß (gelb), der nach der anderen Richtung geht. Der Blutprozeß geht eigentlich immer nach der Peripherie, zentrifugal im Menschen. Der Nervenprozeß, der eigentlich ein Abbauprozeß ist, geht immer zentripetal, geht gegen das Innere des Menschen zu. Und alle Vorgänge, die im Menschen stattfinden, sind Metamorphosen dieser zwei Vorgänge.
Wenn der Vorgang, der sich abspielt zwischen Puls und Atem, in Ordnung ist, dann ist der untere Mensch mit dem oberen Menschen in einer richtigen Verbindung, und dann muß eigentlich der Mensch, wenigstens innerlich, wenn nicht äußere Verletzungen an ihn herantreten, im Grunde gesund sein. Nur wenn der Abbau überwiegt, dann werden übergreifende Zerstörungsprozesse im Organismus sich abspielen. Der Mensch ist dadurch krank, daß sich Fremdartiges in seinem Organismus ansammelt, das nicht in der richtigen Weise verarbeitet ist, das zuviel der Abbaukräfte in sich enthält, das zuviel enthält von dem, was verwandt ist der äußeren physischen Natur, die auf der Erde in des Menschen Umgebung ist.
Durch das direkte Eingreifen des Geistigen auf dem Umwege des Ich werden im Menschen alle diejenigen Vorgänge von krankhafter Art erzeugt, welche Fremdbildungen sind: Fremdbildungen, die vielleicht nicht gleich in physischen Ansammlungen sichtbar sind, Fremdbildungen, die zum Beispiel im flüssigen, ja sogar im luftförmigen Menschen sein können, die aber Fremdbildungen sind. Die werden sich heraus bilden, und denen kommt dann nicht ein gesundender Prozeß, wie er längs der Blutbahnen verläuft, von unten entgegen, so daß diese Fremdbildungen, die zuerstdie Tendenzhaben, geschwulstartige Anhäufungen im Körper zu bilden und dann innerlich zu zerbröckeln, sich nicht auflösen können. Kommt ihnen der Blutbildungsprozeß in der richtigen Weise entgegen, dann können sie sich auflösen, dann gehen sie wiederum in den Vorgang des allgemeinen Leibeslebens über. Aber wenn eine Stauung dadurch entsteht, daß gewissermaßen von oben herunter ein zu starker Abbauprozeß Platz greift, so ergreift er das eine oder andere Organ. Es bilden sich Fremdkörper, die zuerst exsudatartig, geschwulstartig sind, dann die Tendenz aber haben, geradeso zu verlaufen, wie eben die äußeren Prozesse der irdischen Natur verlaufen, die sich zerbröckeln. Und da ist es dann notwendig, daß man sich klar darüber ist, daß eben nicht genügend von dem übersinnlichen Menschen auf dem Wege, den ich hier eigentlich neben den physischen Menschen gezeichnet habe, in den Menschen aufgenommen wird.
Man kann eigentlich von Heilen durch Menschenkunst nicht unmittelbar reden, denn die Sache ist so: In dem Momente, wo zuviel Tätigkeit entwickelt wird nach der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation hin in zentripetaler Richtung, wo also zuviel von den Vorgängen der äußeren Umgebung in den Menschen hineingestopft wird, so daß diese geschwulstartigen Bildungen, die dann zerbröckeln, irgendwo entstehen, in dem Momente wird das andere System, das längs der Blutbahnen verläuft, rebellisch und will die Heilung herbeiführen, will dasjenige, was im Organismus ist, durchdringen mit der richtigen astralischen und ätherischen Kraft, die von unten heraufkommen kann, will abhalten das Ich oder den astralischen Leib mit dem Ich, für sich allein zu wirken. Solch einem revolutionären Prinzip im menschlichen Organismus muß der Heiler dann entgegenkommen, und das Heilen besteht eben darin, daß man dasjenige, was im Organismus als ursprüngliche Heilkraft schon vorhanden ist, durch äußere Mittel unterstützt.
Wenn also, sagen wir, eine geschwulstartige Bildung auftaucht, so ist das ein Symptom dafür, daß nicht in richtiger Weise die Ich-Tätigkeit vom Ätherleibe aus eingreift. Sie macht sich geltend, aber kann manchmal nicht herankommen an die Geschwulst. Man muß nach dieser Richtung hin gewissermaßen den Ätherleib unterstützen, so daß er zur Wirksamkeit kommt. Denn wenn der Ätherleib in der richtigen Weise zur Wirksamkeit kommt, indem er zuerst vom Ich und vom astralischen Leib durchdrungen ist und dann zur Wirksamkeit kommt, wenn er heran kann an das, was von oben kommt und nicht die Ätherwirksamkeit aufgenommen hat, sondern höchstens die Ich- und Astralwirksamkeit, wenn man also der Ich- und Astralwirksamkeit, die vergiftend in den Organismus eingreifen, die ätherische Wirksamkeit entgegensenden kann, dann unterstützt man den Heilungsprozeß, der durch die menschliche Organisation selber da sein will. Man braucht eigentlich nur zu wissen, durch welche Mittel in einem solchen Falle die ätherische Organisation, in der richtigen Weise von astralischer und Ich-Organisation durchzogen, in den Körper eingreifen muß. Man braucht sozusagen der ätherischen Organisation durch die Mittel nur zu Hilfe zukommen. Man muß also wissen, welche Mittel in einem solchen Falle die ätherische Organisation stark machen, so daß sie ihre aufbauende Kraft der zu starken abbauenden Kraft entgegensetzen kann. Was der Therapie als die Pathologie zugrunde liegt, läßt sich eben durchaus nicht begreifen, wenn man nicht zu dem unsichtbaren Menschen seine Zuflucht nimmt.
Es kann aber auch so sein, daß der Mensch, indem er geboren wird, mit seiner Ich- und astralischen, also sagen wir, mit seiner geistig-seelischen Organisation nicht richtig in die physische Organisation eingreift, daß also gewissermaßen die geistig-seelische Organisation nicht genügend hineinstößt in die physische Organisation. Dann wird der ganze Mensch fortwährend ein Überwiegen haben desjenigen, was von unten nach oben als Wachstumskräfte vorhanden ist, was aber nicht in genügender Weise Schwere bekommt durch die Eingliederung der physischen Organisation. Der Mensch kann so geboren werden, daß sein physischer Leib nicht genügend von dem unsichtbaren Menschen ergriffen wird, daß also dieser hier gezeichnete unsichtbare Mensch gewissermaßen sich weigert, in der gehörigen Weise einzugreifen in den Blutprozeß. Dann kann der Geist des Menschen nicht an den Blutprozeß heran, und wir sehen dann die Folgen daran, daß solche Menschen uns schon von Kindheit auf blaß entgegentreten, mager bleiben, oder wohl auch durch die überwiegenden Wachstumskräfte schnell in die Höhe schießen. Dann haben wir das vor uns, daß das Geistig-Seelische nicht richtig hinein kann in den Organismus. Und weil der Körper sich weigert, das Geistig-Seelische aufzunehmen, müssen wir dahin wirken, daß wir im ätherischen Leibe, wo dann eine zu starke Tätigkeit vorhanden ist, diese abschwächen. Wir müssen also bei solchen blaß und hager und aufgeschossen auftretenden Menschenkindern dahin wirken, daß wiederum die im ätherischen Leib hypertrophisch, übermäßig wirkenden Kräfte auf ihr gehöriges Maß zurückgeführt werden, daß der Mensch Schwere in den Leib bekommt, daß das Blut zum Beispiel durch Empfangen des nötigen Eisengehaltes die entsprechende Schwere bekommt, so daß der ätherische Leib weniger nach oben wirkt, in seiner Wirkung nach oben abgeschwächt wird.
Man merkt einen solchen Zustand auch daran, daß bei einem solchen Menschen stärker auftritt etwas, was ich gegenüber den Tagprozessen, den Tagvorgängen, die Nachtvorgänge nennen möchte. Denn man möchte sagen: In der Nacht weigert sich ja bei jedem normalen Menschen die physisch-ätherische Organisation, das Geistig-Seelische aufzunehmen. Diese Nachtorganisation des im Bette liegenden Menschen — nicht des unsichtbaren Menschen, der heraußen ist -, diese Nachtorganisation ist zu stark bei denjenigen, die eine Art angeborener Schwindsucht, wie ich sie eben geschildert habe, in sich tragen. Man muß dann die Tagorganisation unterstützen, das heißt, ihr eine gewisse Schwere geben dadurch, daß man die Abbauprozesse geradezu fördert. Denn wenn man die Abbauprozesse fördert und dann innerlich dieses sich Verhärtende und zuletzt Zerbröckelnde auftritt - es muß natürlich nur in sehr geringem Maße beim Heilen stattfinden -, dann drängt man die überquellende Kraft des Ätherleibes zurück, und man hält das Schwindsuchtsmoment zurück.
So wird aus der Erkenntnis des ganzen Menschen eben dieses eigentümliche Zusammenwirken von Gesundheit und Krankheit durchsichtig, das immer da ist, und das im wesentlichen ausgeglichen wird durch dasjenige, was sich zwischen Puls und Atem abspielt. Und lernt man dann erkennen, durch welche äußeren Mittel man das eine oder das andere fördern kann, dann kommt man eben in die Lage, die ja immer vorhandenen, aber nicht immer aufkommenden NaturheilungsProzesse zu unterstützen. Denn einen ganz fremdartigen Prozeß kann man in den menschlichen Organismus nicht hineinbringen. Was im menschlichen Organismus vor sich geht, ist immer so: Wenn man irgendeinen fremdartigen Prozeß in ihn hineinbringt, so wird er innerlich sogleich in den entgegengesetzten verwandelt. Essen Sie irgend etwas, so hat das Nahrungsmittel gewisse chemische Kräfte in sich. Indem der Organismus sie aufnimmt, verwandelt er sie sogleich innerlich in die entgegengesetzten. Und das muß möglich sein. Denn behält zum Beispiel ein Nahrungsmittel, nachdem es aufgenommen wird, zu lange seine äußere Beschaffenheit, dann geht es eben an den Abbauprozeß heran, und das bewirkt äußere, im Menschen zerstörende, todbringende Abbauprozesse. Es muß gewissermaßen dasjenige, was mit den Nahrungsmitteln in den Menschen hineinkommt, sogleich durch innere Prozesse in Empfang genommen und in sein Gegenteil verwandelt werden.
Sie können diese Prozesse, die ich Ihnen jetzt hier aus dem Ganzen des Menschen heraus entwickelt habe, an Einzelheiten verfolgen. Nehmen Sie einmal an, Sie stechen sich irgendwo einen Fremdkörper ein (siehe farbige Zeichnung 3, gelb). Das Verhalten Ihres Leibes zu diesem Fremdkörper kann in zweierlei Art vor sich gehen. Nehmen wir an, Sie können den Fremdkörper nicht herausziehen, er bleibt drinnen. Dann kann zweierlei geschehen. Rings um den Fremdkörper ist tätig die aufbauende Kraft in dem fließenden Blute (rot). Die sammelt sich rings um den Fremdkörper an, ist aber von ihrer Stelle gerückt. Das führt dazu, daß die Nerventätigkeit sogleich anfängt zu überwiegen. Es sondert sich um den Fremdkörper eine exsudatartige Bildung ab (blau). Der Fremdkörper wird eingekapselt. Dadurch, daß das geschicht, bildet sich an der Stelle des Körpers das Folgende: Während sonst, wenn wir keinen Fremdkörper an der Stelle haben, dort in einer gewissen Weise der ätherische Leib in den physischen Leib eingreift, wird der ätherische Leib jetzt in den Fremdkörper nicht eingreifen können, sondern dadrinnen wird gewissermaßen eine Blase entstehen, die nur vom Ätherischen ausgefüllt ist (rote Striche). Wir haben in uns ein Stückchen Leib, das einen Fremdkörper enthält, und wo ein Stückchen ätherischer Leib nicht vom Physischen durchorganisiert ist. Da kommt es dann darauf an, dadrinnen den astralischen Leib so stark zu machen, daß er ohne die Hilfe des physischen Leibes bei dem Stückchen Ätherleib wirken kann. Und durch diese Einkapselung hat sich eigentlich unser Leib an die abbauenden Kräfte gewandt, um diese abbauenden Kräfte in einem Stück Leib herauszusondern und da nun den heilenden Ätherleib einzugliedern, der in der entsprechenden Weise aber dann durch eine richtige Behandlung unterstützt werden muß von dem Astralischen und dem Ich.
Wir müssen also gewissermaßen sagen, daß in einem solchen Falle dasjenige, was über dem Physischen im Menschen liegt, so stark werden muß, daß es ohne das Physische für diesen kleinen Teil der menschlichen Organisation wirken kann. Das geschieht immer, wenn im Sinne einer sogenannten Heilung irgendein Fremdkörper im Menschen, ein Splitter, der eingestochen wird zum Beispiel, sich einkapselt. Da also wird der Mensch für diesen Teil seines Leibes gewissermaßen mit seiner ganzen Organisation ein Stück nach oben gerückt. Nun bildet sich ja natürlich auch Fremdkörperliches rein aus der Organisation heraus. Das muß dann in der gleichen Weise angesehen werden.
Aber nun kann ein ganz anderer Prozeß sich abspielen, wenn wir uns einen Splitter eingestoßen haben. Es kann so sein, daß nun, wenn wir uns den Splitter eingestochen haben (siehe farbige Zeichnung 4, gelb), ringsherum die Nerventätigkeit anfängt stärker zu werden und über die Bluttätigkeit überwiegt. Dann erregt die Nerventätigkeit, wo das Ich oder wohl auch das durch den astralischen Leib verstärkte Ich drinnen wirkt, dann erregt diese Nerven-Sinnestätigkeit, die durch den ganzen Leib geht, die Bluttätigkeit, läßt es nicht zum Gerinnen eines Exsudates kommen, sondern regt dasjenige, was sich aussondert, auf, und es führt das dann zur Eiterbildung (weiß). Und weil die Nerven nach außen stoßen (Pfeile), so wird der Eiter durch den Stoß, der in der abbauenden Tätigkeit durch die Nervenbahnen geht, durch den Stoß auch nach der Peripherie, nach außen des Körpers getrieben, und der Splitter eitert aus, kommt heraus, und das Ganze vernarbt dann.
Sie können also unmittelbar an den Vorgängen der Einkapselung sehen, die ja namentlich dann geschehen wird, wenn der Splitter zu weit drinnen sitzt im Organismus, so daß die Stoßkraft des Abbausystems, des Nerven-Sinnessystems nicht ausreicht, um ihn nach außen zu führen, dann wird das Aufbauende in den Blutbahnen stärker sein und zur Einkapselung führen.
Wenn der Splitter mehr an der Oberfläche sitzt, so wird die Nervenstoßkraft, die abbauende Kraft, stärker sein, sie exzitiert, erregt dasjenige, was Exsudat werden will, wird so die ja sonst immer vorhandenen Abbaubahnen, welche nach außen führen, abbauend benutzen, und das Ganze wird vereitern. So daß wir eigentlich sagen können: Im Anfange, gewissermaßen im Momente der Entstehung, im Status nascendi tragen wir eigentlich immer latent die Tendenz in uns, daß unser Organismus verhärten werde nach innen, zentripetal, und daß er wieder aufgelöst werde nach außen, zentrifugal. Nur sind die nach innen wirkende, geschwulstbildende Kraft, und die nach außen wirkende, eiterig entzündliche Kraft im normalen Menschenleibprozeß im Gleichgewichte, gleichen sich aus. Wir entzünden uns immer so stark, daß wir die nach dem Abbau hingehende geschwulstbildende Kraft überwinden. Nur wenn das eine stärker ist als das andere, so entsteht entweder eine wirkliche Geschwulstbildung oder eine wirkliche Entzündungsbildung.
Nun dürfen Sie nicht glauben, daß das alles sich in der Wirklichkeit so leicht ausnimmt, wie man es — was man ja muß - im Beschreiben schematisch darstellt. In Wirklichkeit greifen eben die Prozesse durchaus ineinander. Sie können ja beobachten, daß dann, wenn die entzündlichen Kräfte im Menschen stark sind, fiebrige Erscheinungen auftreten. Das sind im wesentlichen zu starke, überwiegende Aufbauprozesse, die im Blute liegen. Mit dem, was man im Fieber oftmals an Eigenkraft im Menschen entwickelt, könnte man jedenfalls noch ein starkes Stück von einem zweiten Menschen versorgen, wenn man die Kräfte in der richtigen Weise ableiten könnte.
Auf der anderen Seite, da wo die Abbaukräfte stark wirken, treten eigentlich Erkältungserscheinungen auf, die nur nicht so leicht zu konstatieren sind wie die Fiebererscheinungen. Aber es treten auch abwechselnd die einen und die anderen Erscheinungen auf, so daß man es in der Wirklichkeit immer mit einem Durcheinanderwirken desjenigen zu tun hat, was man eben auseinanderhalten muß, wenn man die Sache durchschauen will.
Wenn man in der Natur Gifte hat, sagen wir zum Beispiel das Gift, das in derBelladonna, in der Tollkirsche sitzt, dann entsteht ja die Frage: Was sind gegenüber den gewöhnlichen Stoffen, die wir in unserer Umgebung finden, und die ja nicht Gifte sind, weil wir sie essen können, was sind denn die eigentlichen Gifte?
Wenn wir unsere Nahrungsmittel essen, dann bekommen wir in den Organismus dasjenige hinein, was in der Natur draußen auf eine ähnliche Weise gebildet wird wie unser unsichtbarer Mensch. Wir bekommen dasjenige in uns hinein, was von einer geistigen Tätigkeit ausgeht (siehe farbige Zeichnung 5, gelb), in eine astralische Tätigkeit hineingeht (rot), dann in eine ätherische Tätigkeit (blau) und dann in eine physische Tätigkeit hineingeht (weiß). Wenn eine solche Tätigkeit, die in der Natur von oben nach unten geht, die also gewissermaßen von dem Umkreis herein auf die Erde wirkt, eine Tätigkeit, die unserer innerlichen Ich-Tätigkeit, die eine rein geistige ist, verwandt ist, wenn also das, was ich hier schematisch gelb gezeichnet habe, herunterfließt, aber sich auf dem Wege vom Astralischen umwandelt, weiterhin auf dem Wege vom Ätherischen umwandelt, dann ins Physische geht, dann nimmt die Pflanze in der Regel eine solche Tätigkeit auf. Die Pflanze wächst dieser Tätigkeit von unten nach oben entgegen und nimmt diese ätherische Tätigkeit auf, die aber schon von oben richtig die astralische und Ich-Tätigkeit, also die seelische und geistige Tätigkeit in sich hat.
Aber es kann auch so geschehen, wie es bei dem Gifte ist. Die Giftstoffe haben die Eigentümlichkeit, daß sie sich nicht an das Ätherische wenden wie die gewöhnlichen grünen Stoffe in der Pflanze, sondern sich direkt an das Astralische wenden, daß also das Astralische, das ich hier rot gezeichnet habe, in diesen Stoff hineingeht (siehe farbige Zeichnung 5, unteres Rot im Weiß). Bei der Tollkirsche ist es so, daß die Frucht außerordentlich gierig wird und durch ihre Gier nicht sich damit befriedigt, das Ätherische aufzunehmen, sondern daß die Frucht direkt das Astralische aufnimmt, bevor dieses Astralische die Lebenskräfte durch das Ätherische beim Herunterströmen in sich aufgenommen hat. Ich möchte sagen, es tropft immerfort, statt in das Ätherische hineinzugehen, auch Astralisches aus der Weltenumgebung auf die Erde nieder. Und solche Tropfen astralischen Wesens, die nicht in der richtigen Weise durch die Ätheratmosphäre der Erde hindurchgegangen sind, finden sich zum Beispiel in dem Gift der Tollkirsche. Auch in dem Gift, sagen wir des Stechapfels, in dem Hyoscyamin, dem Gifte des Bilsenkrautes und so weiter, haben wir gewissermaßen ein Niedertropfen des Kosmisch-Astralischen in die Pflanze hinein.
Dadurch aber ist dasjenige, was in diesen Pflanzenstoffen lebt, zum Beispiel was in der Belladonna, in der Tollkirsche lebt, verwandt jener Tätigkeit, die direkt vom Ich oder astralischen Leib hineingeht in die menschlichen Nerven und in den menschlichen Sauerstoffkreislauf. Wir bekommen also, wenn wir das Gift der Tollkirsche aufnehmen, eine wesentliche Verstärkung der Abbauprozesse in uns, derjenigen Prozesse, die sonst vom Ich direkt in den physischen Leib hineingehen. Das menschliche Ich ist nicht so stark, daß es eine solche Verstärkung ertragen kann. Wenn die entgegenwirkende, von unten nach oben in den Blutbahnen gehende Wirkung einmal zu groß ist, dann kann man ihr entgegenschicken solche Abbauprozesse, und es kann in einer kleinen Dosierung das Atropin, das Gift der Tollkirsche, ein Gegenmittel sein gegen die zu starken Wachstumsprozesse. Aber in dem Augenblicke, wo zuviel von diesem Gift kommt, da kann nicht mehr die Rede davon sein, daß ein Gleichgewicht da ist: dann werden zunächst die Wachstumsprozesse zurückgedrängt, und der Mensch wird ganz benebelt von einer geistigen Tätigkeit, die er noch nicht mit seinem Ich ertragen kann, die er vielleicht erst in zukünftigen Zuständen, im Venus- und Vulkanzustand, wird ertragen können. Dadurch treten die eigentümlichen Vergiftungserscheinungen auf. Zuerst wird untergraben der Ausgangspunkt der im Blute wirkenden Tätigkeit. Es treten dann jene gastrischen Erscheinungen auf, die, wenn Tollkirschengift genossen wird, den Anfang bilden. Dann werden die Kräfte stark abgehalten, in der richtigen Weise von unten nach oben zu wirken, und es tritt eben die völlige Bewußtlosigkeit, die Zerstörung des Menschen von den Abbauprozessen aus ein.
So können wir richtig verfolgen, wenn wir überall wissen, was vom Geistigen in irgendeiner Substanz, die wir aufnehmen, enthalten ist — und am besten ist das ja immer an den Pflanzen zu studieren -, wie eine solche Substanz im menschlichen Organismus wirkt. Es muß sich eben vereinen mit einer richtigen Erkenntnis der äußeren Natur. Wir müssen wissen, was in den einzelnen Pflanzen lebt und werden-dann auch wissen, wie die einzelnen Pflanzen zum Beispiel in Diätverordnungen auf den Menschen wirken, und wir werden etwas damit erreichen, wenn man zu gleicher Zeit einen solchen sozialen Zustand herbeiführt, daß die Sachen auch wirklich vollzogen werden können. Heute ist man ja, wenn man irgend etwas auch weiß, zumeist in der Lage, daß es nicht beschafft werden kann, weil unsere sozialen Zustände gar nicht angepaßt sind den Erkenntnissen der Natur. Die Erkenntnisse der Natur werden abgezogen, abstrakt getrieben. Da kommt man nicht dazu, das wirkliche Drinnenstehen des Menschen im ganzen Universum zu erfassen. Man kommt nicht dazu, in größerem Umfange wirklich etwas so ausführen zu können, daß man sich zum Beispiel sagt: Da hat man einen Menschen, für den ist es notwendig, daß man ihm diese oder jene Pflanzenstoffe in diesem oder jenem Rhythmus beibringt. Ja, damit das in umfassender Weise geschehen kann, muß eben unsere wissenschaftliche Medizin einen anderen Charakter annehmen. Man muß verbinden die äußeren Einrichtungen im ganzen sozialen Leben mit demjenigen, was man wissen kann über die Beziehungen des Menschen zur umgebenden Natur.
Gewiß, im einzelnen kann ja viel gemacht werden. Man kann Wurzeln auskochen für einen Menschen, bei dem man weiß, daß die Abbauprozesse, vom Kopfe ausgehend, zu stark sind. Man kocht bestimmte Wurzeln aus, von denen man weiß, daß da Stoffe drinnen sind, welche dadurch, daß man es eben mit einer Wurzel zu tun hat, in der richtigen Weise nach abwärts gezogen haben das Geistige, das Seelische, das Ätherische, bis in das Physische in der Wurzelbildung hinein. Dadurch bekommt man in den menschlichen Organismus von den Stoffen der Wurzelbildung aus etwas, was, wenn man es im Organismus zur Wirksamkeit bringt bis in die äußerste Peripherie der Blutbahnen, bis in den Kopf, man dann aufrufen kann, dem zu starken Abbauprozeß des Nervensystems entgegenzuarbeiten. Aber man muß eine genaue Vorstellung haben, was für Veränderungen etwas durchmacht, was in der Pflanzenwurzel sitzt, wenn es aufgenommen wird, sagen wir, durch den Mund und dann verarbeitet wird, um bis in die äußerste Peripherie der Kopforganisation oder auch der Hautorganisation nach außen zu gehen. Man wird in einem anderen Falle wissen müssen, sagen wir, wie Stoffe wirken, die man der Blüte einer Pflanze entnimmt, die also schon etwas wackelig sind in ihrem Verhältnis zum Ätherischen, die schon sehr stark das Astralische in sich aufnehmen, die schon in einer gewissen Beziehung, wenn auch leise, an das Giftartige stoßen, wie man, wenn man diese Stoffe Bädern zumischt und dadurch sie auf dem ganzanderen Wege in den Organismus bringt, die zu schwache Aufbauorganisation, die in den Blutbahnen liegt, anregen kann, um dadurch von der anderen Seite dem entgegenzuwirken, was von der Abbauwirkung eben nach außen wirkt.
Ebenso ist es, wenn man innerlich verfolgen will die Wirksamkeit desjenigen, was man injiziert. Da hat man es auch im wesentlichen zu tun mit einer Verstärkung der Aufbauprozesse, damit ein richtiges Gleichgewicht gegenüber den Abbauprozessen zustande kommt. Man wird daher insbesondere bei Injektionen immer sehen, wie die Abbauprozesse reagieren müssen. Bei Injektionen hat man keine richtige Wirkung, wenn man nicht sieht, wie die Abbauprozesse sich zuerst sträuben, und erst nach und nach in der richtigen Weise einlaufen in die Aufbauprozesse. Injiziert man also irgend etwas, so wird man sehen, daß da kleine Sehstörungen oder auch Ohrensausen auftreten, weil da zunächst die Abbauprozesse sich weigern, in das richtige Gleichgewicht zu kommen mit den verstärkten Aufbauprozessen. Aber man hat auch eine Garantie dafür, daß ein Eingreifen in die Prozesse stattfindet, wenn solche Symptome der Reaktion wirklich auftreten.
Sie sehen daraus, daß es sich bei Anthroposophie wirklich nicht darum handelt, für sektiererische Tanten- oder Onkelversammlungen Schematas zu liefern, nach denen sie auseinandersetzen können: der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und Ich, sondern daß es sich hier handelt um ein ganz ernsthaftes Erfassen des Menschen und seines Verhältnisses zur Welt, um ein Hineintragen des Geistigen in alles Materielle. Und daß Anthroposophie das Geistige in dem Materiellen verfolgen kann, das ist etwas, was eingesehen werden muß, wenn Anthroposophie wirklich sich ihre Stellung in der Welt erobern will. Denn solange man bloß für die Tanten- und Onkelversammlungen in sektiererischen Zirkeln arbeitet, die da tradieren ihre Einteilungen des Menschen, so lange hat man es nur zu tun mit etwas, was in Streit kommt mit allen möglichen anderen sektiererischen Dingen. In dem Augenblicke aber, wo man tatsächlich zeigt, wie dasjenige, was man begreift in der Anthroposophie, eingreift in alles übrige Wissen, wie es, nach dem Ausspruche, den ich gestern getan habe, alles übrige Erdenwissen beleuchtet, so wie früher die Astrologie alle Erdenvorgänge beleuchtet hat, dann hat man an der Anthroposophie eben etwas, was in den modernen Zivilisationsprozeß eingreifen muß, damit ein wirklicher Aufbau auch gegenüber den von älteren Zeiten her kommenden Abbauprozessen in dem menschlichen Zivilisationsprozeß Platz greifen kann.
Solcher Ernst ist zu verbinden mit demjenigen, was man sein Bekenntnis zur Anthroposophie nennen kann. Gewiß kann der einzelne ja nicht immer in der Weise mitwirken, daß er zum Beispiel selberdarauf kommt, wie Belladonna auf der einen Seite, Chlor auf der anderen Seite auf den menschlichen Organismus wirkt. Aber darum handelt es sich nicht, daß der einzelne das findet, sondern darum, daß in weiteren Kreisen ein Verständnis, ein allgemeines Gefühls- und Empfindungsverständnis da ist, wie das dem Menschen Heilsame gerade aus anthroposophischer Welt- und Menschenerkenntnis heraus gewonnen werden kann.
Man verlangt ja auch nicht in der Waldorfschul-Pädagogik, daß jeder einzelne Mensch erziehen oder wenigstens die Kinder vom volksschulpflichtigen Alter an erziehen kann. Man verlangt aber, daß im allgemeinen ein Verständnis dafür vorhanden ist, wie da aus Menschen- und Welterkenntnis heraus eine Pädagogik aufgebaut ist. Was Anthroposophie braucht, ist ein ihr entgegenkommendes Verständnis. Es wäre ganz falsch, wenn man glauben würde, jeder einzelne sollte alles wissen. Aber es sollte die Wirksamkeit anthroposophischer Gemeinschaft darin bestehen, daß sich ein allgemeines, auf den gesunden Menschenverstand sich bauendes Verständnis findet für dasjenige, was im Sinne von Menschenheil und Menschenzukunft gerade durch die AnthroposoPhie angestrebt und zu verwirklichen versucht wird.
VI. The Invisible Man Within Us. The Pathological Basis of Therapy
In the human being as he stands before us, two entities can actually be clearly distinguished. You will recall that in various recent reflections, I explained how the physical organization of the human being is prepared spiritually in the pre-earthly life, and then sent down as it were as a spiritual organization before the human being himself enters into earthly existence with his I. This spiritual organization essentially continues to have an effect throughout the entire physical life on earth, but during physical life on earth it does not express itself in anything outwardly visible. At birth, the outer visible layer is essentially shed, because it consists of the membranes in which the human embryo is wrapped during the embryonic period: the chorion and amniotic sac, the allantois, everything that is shed as the physical organization when the human being leaves the mother's womb and gains a free physical existence. But this pre-earthly organization remains active in the human being throughout his or her entire life. Its nature is only somewhat different from the activity of the human being's body, soul and spirit during physical life on earth. And this is what I would like to talk about today.
So, in a sense, we have within us an invisible human being, who is contained in our growth forces, also in those hidden forces through which nutrition comes about, who is contained in all that the conscious activity of the human being does not actually extend to. But his activity also extends into this unconscious activity, into the growth activity, into the daily restoration of strength through nutrition. And this activity is precisely the after-effect of the pre-earthly existence, which in the earthly existence becomes a body of forces that works in us, but which does not actually come to conscious manifestation. This invisible human being, whom we all carry within us, who is part of our growth and nourishment, and who is also part of our reproductive forces, is what I would like to describe to you first in terms of his nature.
We can do this schematically by saying to ourselves: the I, the astral organization, the etheric organization, that is, the body of formative forces, and the physical organization are also contained in this invisible human being. Of course, this physical organization is contained within the other physical organization in the born human being, but in the course of today's reflections you will be able to grasp the intervention of the invisible human being in the physical organization.
If I draw schematically, I have to draw it like this (see drawing on the left):
We have the ego organization (yellow) in this invisible human being, then the astral organization (red), then the etheric organization (blue), and finally the physical organization (white). This physical organization, which is relevant for the invisible human being, only intervenes in the nutrition-growth processes, in everything that is effective in the human organization from the lower human being, as we have often described him, from the metabolic-limb human being. All currents and all the forces at work in this invisible human being proceed from the ego organization, then enter the astral, etheric and physical organizations, and then spread out in the physical organization (see arrow in illustration on page 76). In the human embryo, what is called the physical organization here is present in the membranes, the embryo's covers, in the chorion, the allantois, the amniotic sac, and so on. In the born human being, everything that is called physical organization here is contained in the processes that are processes of nutrition and restoration in the whole human being. So outwardly this physical organization here (see drawing on the right) is not separate from the other physical organization of the human being, but united with it.
In a sense, we then have the visible human being next to this invisible human being, which we have before us when the human being is just born. I want to draw this visible human being alongside it, so to speak. So that would be the interpenetration of the physical and the superphysical human being during life on earth. Now during earthly life this current takes place continually (arrow): from the I to the astral body, to the etheric body, to the physical body. In the human being at birth this current runs in the metabolic organization of the limbs, in all that concerns the forces of movement, and in the internal forces of movement that carry the absorbed food into the whole organism up to the brain.
On the other hand, there is also a direct intervention, an effect of forces that now goes directly from the I into the whole human being (see colored drawing r). So we have an intervention of an activity, a current, so to speak, that goes directly from the I into the nerve-sense organization, which therefore does not first pass through the astral body, through the etheric body, but which directly intervenes in the physical body of the human being. Of course, this intervention is strongest at the head, where most of the sensory organs are concentrated. But I would actually have to draw this current in such a way that it spreads over the whole human being, for example, through the sense of touch, just as I would also have to draw a current for the ingestion of food through the mouth. But schematically, the drawing is quite correct as I have just made it. So in the human head we have an organization in which currents rise from below, starting from the I, but passing through the astral, etheric and physical, and then rising up to the I. We have another current that goes directly into the physical and flows down.
When we examine the human organism, we come to realize that this direct current, which goes from the I directly into the physical and then branches out in the body, goes along the nerve pathways (see colored drawing 1, yellow). So that when the human nerves spread out in the organism, the outer visible nerve cord is the outer visible sign of the spreading of the current that goes directly from the I to the whole organism, but goes directly from the I into the physical organization. Along the nerve tracts, the ego organization runs first. This is essentially destructive for the organism. For here the spirit enters directly into physical matter. And wherever the spirit enters directly into physical matter, there is a process of destruction, so that along the nerve tracts, starting from the senses, a subtle process of death spreads throughout the human organism.
We can follow the current that first passes through the invisible human being after the astral, etheric and physical bodies by following the bloodstream to the senses (see colored drawing 1, red), so that when we examine the person as they stand before us, we can say: the I flows in the blood. But the I flows in such a way that it first permeates its forces through the astral, etheric and physical organizations. The I flows through the physical organization in the blood from below upwards, after it has first taken the astral and etheric organizations with it. Thus, the entire invisible human being flows in the blood process as a constructive, growth process, as the process that always regenerates the human being through the processing of food. This current flows in the human being from bottom to top, we can say schematically, then pours into the senses, and thus also into the skin, and meets the current that directly engages the physical organization from the I. In reality, however, the matter is even more complicated. In reality, we must also pay attention to the breathing process.
In the breathing process, the I does indeed flow into the astral body, but then it flows directly into the lungs with the help of the air. So there is something of the supersensible human being underlying the breathing process, but not in the way that the I directly intervenes in the physical organization, as in the nervous-sensory process. Instead, the I is still imbued with the astral forces, seizes the oxygen, and only then, now not as a pure ego organization, but as an ego-astral organization, does it intervene in the organism with the help of the breathing process (see colored drawing ı, third arrow). One could say, then, that the breathing process is a weakened process of destruction, a weakened process of death. The actual process of death is the nerve-sense process; the breathing process is a weakened process of destruction.
It is then confronted by the process in which the I also strengthens itself to such an extent that its current reaches the etheric body and is only then taken up (see colored drawing ı, fourth arrow). This process, which is already very much in the supersensible, so that it cannot be followed by ordinary physiology, is still outwardly perceptible in the beating of the pulse. This is a restoration process that is not as strong as the direct metabolism-production process, but rather an attenuated restoration process. And it then encounters the breathing process.
The breathing process is to a certain extent a destructive process. If we were to absorb more oxygen, our life would be much shorter. Our life is extended to the extent that the carbonic acid formation process through the blood accommodates the absorption of oxygen in the breathing process.
Thus everything in the organism works together internally, and one can actually understand what is going on in the organism only if one takes the supersensible human being to help in this understanding, because he is visibly shed with the embryo's covers and actually only works in the born human being through invisible forces, but which we can describe precisely if we start from anthroposophical knowledge of the human being.
When we look into the eye with anthroposophical knowledge of man, for example, we have, in the eye, the blood process that runs in the fine branches (see colored drawing 2, red) and which is then taken up by the nerve process (yellow), which goes in the other direction. The blood process actually always goes to the periphery, centrifugally in the human being. The nerve process, which is actually a catabolic process, always goes centripetally, towards the inside of the human being. And all the processes that take place in the human being are metamorphoses of these two processes.
If the process that takes place between the pulse and the breath is in order, then the lower human being is properly connected to the upper human being, and then, at least inwardly, the human being must actually be fundamentally healthy, if no external injuries approach him. Only when the breakdown predominates, then overarching destructive processes will take place in the organism. Man is ill because alien matter accumulates in his organism, which is not processed in the right way, which contains too much of the breakdown forces, which contains too much of what is related to the external physical nature that is on the earth in man's environment.
Through the direct intervention of the spiritual in the human being, all those processes of a morbid nature are generated that are foreign formations: foreign formations that may not be immediately visible in physical accumulations, but which can be in the human being in a liquid or even an airy form, for example. These will develop and are not met by a healing process, such as occurs along the blood vessels, from below, so that these foreign formations, which initially tend to form tumor-like accumulations in the body and then crumble internally, cannot dissolve. If the process of blood formation meets them halfway in the right way, then they can dissolve and merge with the general life processes of the body. But when congestion occurs because a process of disintegration takes place from above, so to speak, it affects one or other organ. Foreign bodies are formed which are first exudate-like, tumor-like, but then tend to run just like the external processes of earthly nature, which crumble away. And here it is necessary to be clear about the fact that not enough of the supersensible human being is taken up by the physical human being on the path that I have actually described here alongside the physical human being.
One cannot really speak of healing through human art, because the matter is as follows: at the moment when too much activity is developed in the centripetal direction towards the nerve-sense organization, when too much of the processes of the external environment is stuffed into the human being, so that these tumor-like formations, which then crumble, arise somewhere, at that moment the other system, which runs along the blood vessels, rebels and wants to bring about healing, wants to permeate what is in the organism with the right astral and etheric power that can come from below, wants to prevent the I or the astral body with the I from working alone. The healer must then accommodate such a revolutionary principle in the human organism, and healing consists precisely in supporting what is already present in the organism as an original healing force through external means.
Thus, if, let us say, a tumor-like formation appears, this is a symptom that the ego activity from the etheric body is not intervening in the right way. It asserts itself, but sometimes cannot reach the tumor. In a sense, the ether body must be supported in this direction so that it can be effective. When the ether body is able to take effect in the right way, by first being permeated by the I and the astral body and then being able to take effect when it can reach what comes from above and has not taken up the ether effect, but at most the I and astral activity, if one can send the etheric activity to the I and astral activity, which are poisoning the organism, then one supports the healing process that wants to take place through the human organization itself. One need only know by what means in such a case the etheric organization, permeated in the right way by the astral and I organizations, must intervene in the body. One need only, so to speak, come to the aid of the etheric organization through the means. One must therefore know which remedies in such a case strengthen the etheric organization so that it can set its constructive power against the excessive destructive power. What underlies the pathology of the therapy cannot be grasped if one does not resort to the invisible human being.
But it can also be the case that, when a person is born, his ego and astral, that is to say, his spiritual-soul organization, does not properly engage with his physical organization, so that, to a certain extent, the spiritual-soul organization does not push sufficiently into the physical organization. Then the whole human being will continually have a preponderance of what is present from below as growth forces, but which does not receive sufficient gravity through the integration of the physical organization. A person can be born in such a way that his physical body is not sufficiently grasped by the invisible human being, that this invisible human being, as it were, refuses to intervene in the proper way in the blood process. Then the human spirit cannot reach the blood process, and we see the consequences in that such people appear pale to us even from childhood, remain thin, or may also shoot up quickly due to the predominant growth forces. Then we have the situation that the spiritual-soul cannot properly enter into the organism. And because the body refuses to take in the spiritual-soul, we have to work to weaken this in the etheric body, where there is then too much activity. We must therefore work with such pale and scrawny children who have grown too tall to reduce the hypertrophically excessive forces in the etheric body to their proper level, so that the person becomes heavy, and the blood, for example, becomes correspondingly heavy by receiving the necessary iron content, so that the etheric body has less upward effect and its upward effect is weakened.
One also recognizes such a condition by the fact that in such a person there occurs more strongly what I would call the night processes, as opposed to the day processes. For one might say: During the night, in every normal person, the physical-etheric organization refuses to take in the spiritual-soul. This night organization of the person lying in bed - not of the invisible person who is outside - this night organization is too strong in those who have a kind of congenital consumption, as I have just described it. In such cases, the daytime organization must be supported, that is, a certain heaviness must be given to it by actively promoting the catabolic processes. Because if you promote the catabolic processes and then this hardening and ultimately crumbling occurs internally - it must of course only take place to a very small extent during healing - then you push back the overflowing strength of the etheric body and you hold back the moment of longing for disappearance.
In this way, the knowledge of the whole person reveals this very peculiar interaction of health and disease, which is always there and which is essentially balanced by what happens between pulse and breath. And if you then learn to recognize which external means can be used to promote one or the other, you are in a position to support the natural healing processes that are always present but do not always emerge. Because you cannot introduce a completely alien process into the human organism. What happens in the human organism is always this: if you introduce any kind of alien process into it, it is immediately transformed internally into the opposite. If you eat something, the food has certain chemical properties. By absorbing it, the organism immediately transforms it internally into the opposite. And that must be possible. For if, for example, a foodstuff retains its outer properties for too long after it has been absorbed, then it will start the process of decomposition, and this causes outer, destructive, death-bringing decomposition processes in the human being. In a sense, what enters the human being with the food must be immediately received by inner processes and transformed into its opposite.
You can follow these processes, which I have now developed for you from the whole of the human being, in detail. Suppose you stab yourself somewhere with a foreign body (see colored drawing 3, yellow). Your body can react to this foreign body in two different ways. Let us assume that you cannot pull out the foreign body, it stays inside. Then two things can happen. The constructive power of the flowing blood (red) is active around the foreign body. It accumulates around the foreign body, but has been displaced from its place. This leads to nervous activity immediately beginning to predominate. An exudate-like formation (blue) is secreted around the foreign body. The foreign body is encapsulated. Because of this, the following occurs at the site of the body: whereas otherwise, when we do not have a foreign body at the site, the etheric body engages with the physical body in a certain way, the etheric body will now be unable to engage with the foreign body. Instead, a kind of bubble will arise within it, filled only by the etheric (red lines). We have a piece of our body that contains a foreign body, and where a piece of the etheric body is not completely organized by the physical. It is then up to the astral body to become so strong that it can work in the piece of etheric body without the help of the physical body. And through this encapsulation, our body has actually turned to the degenerative forces in order to separate these degenerative forces in one part of the body and then to integrate the healing ether body, which must then be supported in the appropriate way by a correct treatment of the astral and the I.
We must therefore say, so to speak, that in such a case that which lies above the physical in man must become so strong that it can work for this small part of the human organization without the physical. This always happens when, in the sense of a so-called healing, any foreign body in the human body, such as a splinter that has been pricked in, encapsulates itself. So, for this part of his body, the human being, so to speak, moves up a piece with his entire organization. Now, of course, foreign bodies are also formed purely from the organization. This must then be viewed in the same way.
But now a completely different process can take place if we have stubbed ourselves on a splinter. It may be that when we have pricked ourselves on the splinter (see colored drawing 4, yellow), the nervous activity around it begins to increase and predominates over the blood activity. Then the nervous activity, where the I or also the I strengthened by the astral body is at work, then this nervous-sensory activity, which goes through the whole body, excites the blood activity, does not allow the coagulation of an exudate, but rather stimulates that which is secreted, and this then leads to the formation of pus (white). And because the nerves push outwards (arrows), the push, which passes through the nerve pathways in the degenerative activity, also drives the pus outwards, to the periphery, out of the body, and the splinter festers out, comes out, and the whole thing then scars.
You can therefore see directly from the processes of encapsulation, which will happen especially when the splinter is too far inside the organism, so that the impact force of the catabolic system, the nerve-sense system, is not sufficient to guide it outwards, then the anabolic force in the bloodstream will be stronger and lead to encapsulation.
If the splinter is closer to the surface, the nervous impulse, the destructive force, will be stronger; it will excite and stimulate what wants to become exudate. It will use the otherwise always-present catabolic pathways, which lead to the outside, in a destructive way, and the whole thing will become ulcerated. So that we can actually say: in the beginning, at the moment of creation, in the status nascendi, we actually always carry the latent tendency within us for our organism to harden inwards, centripetally, and to be dissolved outwards, centrifugally. Only in the normal human body process are the inwardly acting, tumor-forming forces and the outwardly acting, festering, inflammatory forces in balance, and they balance each other out. We always become inflamed to such an extent that we overcome the tumor-forming power that goes towards breaking it down. Only when the one is stronger than the other does either a real tumor formation or a real inflammation formation occur.
Now, you must not imagine that all this appears in reality as simply as it is schematically presented in writing – which one must do, of course. In reality, the processes are intertwined. You can observe that when the inflammatory forces in a person are strong, feverish symptoms occur. These are essentially excessive, predominant anabolic processes in the blood. With the inherent energy that often develops in a person during a fever, one could certainly supply a large portion of another person's needs if one could divert the forces in the right way.
On the other hand, where the catabolic forces are strong, cold symptoms actually occur, but they are not as easy to detect as the febrile symptoms. However, the one and the other symptoms also occur alternately, so that in reality we are always dealing with a confusing interaction of the two, which we have to distinguish if we want to understand the matter.
If we have poisons in nature, let us say for example the poison that is found in belladonna, in deadly nightshade, then the question arises: what are the actual poisons in relation to the ordinary substances that we find in our environment and that are not poisons because we can eat them?
When we eat our food, we take into our organism that which is formed in nature outside in a similar way to our invisible human being. We take into ourselves that which proceeds from a spiritual activity (see colored drawing 5, yellow), enters into an astral activity (red), then into an etheric activity (blue) and then into a physical activity (white). When such an activity, which proceeds from above to below in nature, and thus, in a sense, has an effect on the earth from the periphery, an activity that is related to our inner ego activity, which is a purely spiritual one, when, therefore, what I I have schematically marked in yellow here, flows down, but is transformed by the astral on its way down, and further transformed by the etheric, then enters the physical. As a rule, the plant takes up such an activity. The plant grows towards this activity from below and takes up this etheric activity, which, however, already has the astral and I-activity, that is, the soul and spiritual activity, in it from above.
But it can also happen as it does with poison. The peculiarity of toxic substances is that they do not turn to the etheric, as do the ordinary green substances in the plant, but turn directly to the astral, so that the astral, which I have marked red here, enters into this substance (see colored drawing 5, lower red in the white). In the case of the deadly nightshade, the fruit becomes extraordinarily greedy and, through its greed, does not satisfy itself by absorbing the etheric, but instead the fruit directly absorbs the astral before this astral has absorbed the life forces through the etheric as it flows down into it. I would like to say that, instead of entering into the etheric, the astral also constantly drips down from the cosmic environment onto the earth. And such drops of astral essence, which have not passed through the etheric atmosphere of the earth in the right way, can be found, for example, in the poison of the deadly nightshade. Also in the poison, say, of the datura, in the hyoscyamine, the poison of the henbane and so on, we have, as it were, a dropping of the cosmic astral into the plant.
But as a result, what lives in these plant substances, for example what lives in belladonna, in deadly nightshade, is related to the activity that goes directly from the ego or astral body into the human nerves and into the human oxygen circulation. So when we take the poison of the deadly nightshade, we get a significant intensification of the degradation processes in us, those processes that otherwise go from the I directly into the physical body. The human ego is not so strong that it can endure such an intensification. If the counteracting effect, going from bottom to top in the bloodstream, is once too great, then one can send such degenerative processes against it, and in a small dosage, atropine, the poison of the deadly nightshade, can be an antidote against the excessive growth processes. But the moment too much of this poison comes, there can no longer be any question of there being a balance: then the growth processes are initially suppressed, and the person becomes quite dazed from a spiritual activity that they cannot yet bear with their ego, and which they will perhaps only be able to bear in future states, in the Venus and Vulcan states. This is how the peculiar symptoms of poisoning occur. First, the starting point of the activity in the blood is undermined. Then those gastric phenomena occur which, when deadly nightshade poison is consumed, form the beginning. Then the forces are strongly prevented from working in the right way from bottom to top, and complete unconsciousness occurs, the destruction of the person by the breakdown processes.
Thus we can correctly follow how such a substance works in the human organism if we know everywhere what is contained in any substance we take in - and this can best be studied in plants. It must be united with a correct knowledge of external nature. We must know what lives in the individual plants and then we will also know how the individual plants work in human beings, for example, in dietary prescriptions, and we will achieve something if at the same time we bring about such a social condition that the things can actually be carried out. Today, even if one knows something, it is usually not possible to obtain it because our social conditions are not at all adapted to the knowledge of nature. The knowledge of nature is abstracted and driven into abstraction. This does not allow us to grasp the real place of the human being in the whole universe. It does not allow us to really carry out something on a larger scale, so that we can say, for example, “Here is a person for whom it is necessary to administer this or that plant substance in this or that rhythm.” Yes, in order for this to happen in a comprehensive way, our scientific medicine must take on a different character. We must connect the external institutions in the whole of social life with what can be known about the relationship between humans and the surrounding nature.
Of course, a lot can be done in the individual case. You can boil roots for a person who is known to have too strong a process of deterioration, starting in the head. You boil certain roots, which are known to contain substances that, because they are found in a root, have moved downwards in the right way through the spiritual, the soul, the etheric, into the physical in the root formation. This means that, in the human organism, the substances of the root formation can be used to counteract the excessive degeneration of the nervous system. If these substances are brought into effect in the organism, they can reach all the way to the outermost periphery of the bloodstream, all the way to the head. But one must have a precise idea of the changes that something undergoes when it is taken up, say, through the mouth and then processed, in order to reach the outermost periphery of the head organization or even the skin organization. In another case, we will have to know, let us say, how substances work that are taken from the blossom of a plant, which are already somewhat shaky in their relationship to the etheric, which already absorb the astral very strongly, which already, to a certain extent, even if only slightly, touch on the toxic , how, when these substances are added to baths and thus introduced into the organism in a completely different way, the weak anabolic organization in the bloodstream can be stimulated in order to counteract from the other side what is outwardly effective from the catabolic effect.
The same applies if you want to monitor the effectiveness of what you have injected internally. Here, too, one is essentially dealing with an intensification of the anabolic processes, in order to achieve the right balance in relation to the catabolic processes. Therefore, one will always see, especially with injections, how the catabolic processes must react. With injections, one does not have the right effect if one does not see how the catabolic processes initially resist and only gradually become integrated into the anabolic processes in the right way. If you inject something, you will see that there are slight visual disturbances or even ringing in the ears, because initially the breakdown processes refuse to come into the right balance with the strengthened anabolic processes. But you also have a guarantee that there is an intervention in the processes when such symptoms of the reaction really occur.
You can see from this that anthroposophy is not about providing sectarian gatherings of aunts and uncles with schematics that they can use to work out that the human being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and I, but that it is here about a very serious understanding of the human being and his relationship to the world, about a carrying of the spiritual into all material things. And that Anthroposophy can follow the spiritual in the material is something that must be understood if Anthroposophy really wants to conquer its place in the world. Because as long as it only works for the gatherings of uncles and aunts in sectarian circles, which pass on their classifications of human beings, it will only be dealing with something that comes into conflict with all kinds of other sectarian things. But the moment one actually shows how what one comprehends in anthroposophy intervenes in all other knowledge, how, according to the saying I made yesterday, it illuminates all other earthly knowledge, just as astrology used to illuminated all earthly processes, then one has in Anthroposophy something that must intervene in the modern process of civilization, so that a real construction can also take place in the process of human civilization, in contrast to the destructive processes that have come from older times.
Such seriousness must be associated with what one's confession of anthroposophy can be. Of course, the individual cannot always participate in such a way that he comes up with, for example, how belladonna on the one hand and chlorine on the other hand affect the human organism. But it is not a matter of the individual finding this, but rather of there being an understanding in wider circles, a general understanding of feelings and sensations, as to how that which is beneficial for the human being can be gained from anthroposophical knowledge of the world and of the human being.
In Waldorf education, we do not demand that every single person should be able to educate, or at least educate children of compulsory school age. But we do demand that there is a general understanding of how a pedagogy is built out of knowledge of the human being and the world. What anthroposophy needs is an understanding that accommodates it. It would be quite wrong to believe that every individual should know everything. But the effectiveness of anthroposophical community should consist in finding a general understanding, based on common sense, of what anthroposophy is striving for and trying to achieve in terms of human salvation and the future of humanity.