The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] It may be assumed that clearer and, one might say, more humane conceptions will prevail regarding the two concepts that are to form the subject of our consideration today—namely, the curability and incurability of diseases—once the ideas of karma and karmic connections in life have taken hold in wider circles. It can certainly be said that, with regard to the concepts of the curability and incurability of diseases, the most diverse opinions have been held throughout the centuries. And one need not go very far back in time to see how enormously these concepts have changed.

[ 2 ] There we find a period—the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era, roughly the 16th, 17th centuries—when the idea gradually took hold that forms of illness could be strictly defined and that there was, in fact, a specific herb or mixture for every illness, through which the illness in question could be cured without fail. This belief persisted for quite a long time, even into the 19th century. And if one, as a layperson or as someone who has internalized modern concepts of time, were to read up on accounts of medical treatments from the late 18th or early 19th century and well into the 19th century, one would be astonished by all the remedies and potions that were widely used back then, ranging from teas, mixtures to more dangerous medicines, bloodletting, and so on. But it was precisely the 19th century that, in medical circles—and indeed in respected medical circles—turned this view on its head. And I may well say myself that much of these opposing views came to my attention during my younger years in the most varied nuances and forms. The opportunity arose, for example, when one became involved in the movement of the nihilistic medical school, which was taking shape in Vienna around the middle of the 19th century and was actually gaining more and more prestige. The starting point for a radical change in views regarding the curability and incurability of diseases was what the eminent physician Dietl brought to light regarding the course of pneumonia and similar diseases. Through various observations, he had come to conclude that, fundamentally, no real influence of this or that remedy on the course of this or that disease could be detected. And it was precisely under the influence of Dietl’s school that the young physicians of the time came to view the therapeutic value of remedies that had been in use for centuries in such a way that they applied to all traditional remedies the meaning of the well-known proverb: “If the rooster crows on the dungheap, the weather will change—or it will stay just as it is!” — They were of the opinion that it made little difference to the course of a disease whether one administered this or that remedy or not. And Dietl was someone who produced statistics that were quite convincing for the time, showing that with the so-called “wait-and-see” treatment he introduced, roughly as many people suffering from pneumonia were cured or died as with the earlier treatment using the time-honored remedies. The wait-and-see treatment established by Dietl and continued by Skoda consisted of placing the patient in external conditions that enabled him to make the best possible use of his self-healing powers to draw them out of their organism, and the physician was assigned scarcely any other role than to monitor the course of the illness, so that he would be present if anything occurred where appropriate assistance could be provided by human means. Otherwise, one limited oneself to, so to speak, watching the illness unfold, waiting to see how the self-healing powers emerged from the organism, until the fever subsided after some time and self-healing by the organism took place.

[ 3 ] This medical school was, and still is, referred to as the “nihilistic school” because it was based on a statement by Professor Skoda, who said something to the effect of: “We may be able to learn to diagnose diseases, to describe them, and perhaps even to explain them—but we cannot cure them!” — I am telling you things that you should take note of as facts that emerged over the course of the 19th century, so that you may gain a sense of how ideas in this field have changed. But let no one believe that, simply because this or that is stated here in a purely narrative form, a position is thereby being taken in one way or another. For, of course, the statement by the famous Professor Skoda was a kind of radicalism, and it would be easy to point out the limits within which such a statement applies. But one thing was implied by such an opinion, without one actually having the means to consciously justify this implication in any way, or to describe it, or to put it into words—indeed, one could not even conceive of it in thought; that is to say, in the circles in which it was uttered, one could not even begin to think about this implication. It was pointed out that there must indeed be something within the human being that, in a certain respect, determines the outcome and course of an illness and that, as such, lies fundamentally beyond what human aid can achieve.

[ 4 ] There was thus a reference to something that lies beyond human help; and this reference can never, if one truly gets to the heart of the matter, refer to anything other than the law of karma and the workings of karma in the course of human life. When we trace the course of an illness in human life—the onset of the illness, the healing powers springing from the organism itself—when we trace the process of healing, then, if we observe impartially, especially when we consider how healing occurs in one case while in another case no healing seems possible, we are driven to seek a deeper law. May this deeper law be sought in the human being’s previous earthly lives? That is the question for us. Can we say that a person brings with them certain preconditions that virtually predetermine their ability, in a particular case, to summon their healing powers from within the organism, but which, in another case, are so predetermined that, despite all efforts, they are unable to heal the illness?

[ 5 ] If you recall what was explained yesterday, you will understand that during the processes that take place between death and rebirth, very special forces are indeed absorbed into the human individuality. For we have said that during the Kamaloka period, the events of a person’s last life, the good and evil deeds they have performed, their character traits, and so on, come before their soul; and that through the contemplation of their own life, they absorb within themselves the tendency to create a remedy and balance for everything that is imperfect in them and that has manifested as a wrong action, to create a remedy and balance, and to imprint upon himself the relevant qualities that make him more perfect in this or that area. Once we have grasped this, we can say: This intention, this tendency, the human being now retains and, through a new birth, returns to existence with this intention. — But the human being himself builds the new body that attaches itself to him and reshapes him in the new life, and he builds it according to the forces he has brought with him from previous lifetimes and from the time between death and new birth. He is endowed with these forces and weaves them into his new physicality. Thus we have understood that this new physicality is weak or strong, depending on whether the human being can weave weak or strong forces into it.

[ 6 ] Now, however, we must be clear that a certain consequence will ensue if, for example, a person has realized during the Kamaloka life: In your last life, you were a human being who committed many actions under the influence of your emotions—anger, fear, loathing, and so on. — Such actions now stand vividly before their soul during the Kamaloka period, and the thought takes shape within that soul—the expressions that arise for these forces are, of course, shaped by physical life!—: You must do something about yourself so that you may become more perfect in this regard, so that in the future you will no longer be inclined to commit acts under the influence of your emotions! — This thought becomes a component of the individuality of the human soul, and as it passes through a new birth, this thought is further imprinted as a force into the newly emerging body. And into these flows the tendency to accomplish something with the entire organization of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body, which now makes it impossible for the human being to commit certain actions out of his emotions—out of anger, hatred, envy, and so on—so that he is able to truly perfect himself in this regard. And through this, he will come to perform new actions that can now bring about the balancing of earlier actions. Thus, from a rationality far surpassing his ordinary rationality, the human being allows the intention to flow into himself that can lead him to a higher perfection in a particular area and to the balancing of certain actions. — If you consider how manifold life is, how human beings perform such actions day by day that require such a balancing, you will understand that there are many such thoughts in the soul awaiting balancing when the soul enters existence through a new birth, and that these manifold thoughts intersect, so that the human physical body and etheric body thereby receive a configuration into which all these tendencies are woven. To make this clear to us, let us take a very striking case. But today, in particular, I must emphasize what I always emphasize: that I avoid speaking from any theory or speculation, and that when I cite examples, I cite only those that have been thoroughly tested by spiritual science.

[ 7 ] Let us assume that someone lived in their last life in such a way that they acted out of a sense of self that was far too weak—a sense of self that went far too far in its devotion to the external world, to the point that it manifested as a lack of independence and a loss of self, which is no longer appropriate for our current human cycle. So it was this lack of self-awareness that led a person in one incarnation to perform these or those actions. Now, during the Kamaloka period, they have before them the actions that flowed from this lack of self-awareness. From this, they first take up the tendency: You must develop within yourself the forces that will increase your sense of self, you must create the opportunity in a future incarnation to steel your sense of self against the resistance of your physical body, against the forces that will oppose you from the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, so that it undergoes a kind of training. You must acquire a body that shows you how the predisposition to a weak sense of self manifests through the physical body!

[ 8 ] What will then take place in the next incarnation will enter the conscious mind only to a limited extent; it will unfold more or less in the subconscious realm. The individual will strive toward an incarnation that presents the most severe resistance to his sense of self, so that he is compelled to exert his sense of self to the utmost. As a result, he will be drawn, as if by a magnet, to such environments and circumstances where he faces profound obstacles, where his sense of self must assert itself against the organization of the three bodies. As strange as it may sound to you: Such individuals, burdened with this karma that drives them to strive into existence through birth in the manner described, seek access to situations where they may, for example, be exposed to an epidemic such as cholera; for this offers them the opportunity to encounter the very resistances that have just been described. What must be endured internally against the resistances of the three bodies within the sick person can then result in the sense of self having grown to a considerable degree in the next incarnation.

[ 9 ] Let us consider another striking case—specifically, to help you grasp the context, the exact opposite case. During the Kamaloka period, a person sees that, driven by an excessive sense of self, he has performed a series of actions that stemmed from an excessive reliance on himself. He sees that he must moderate his sense of self, that he must curb it. There they must again seek an opportunity where, in the next incarnation, their three bodies will give them the possibility that their sense of self—no matter how hard it strives—will find no barriers anywhere within the physical body, that it will plunge into the abyss everywhere and reduce itself to absurdity. The conditions for this are established when the person in question is drawn to an opportunity brought about by malaria.

[ 10 ] Here you have described a case of karmic action and even stated that, fundamentally, human beings are guided by a higher rationality—one that transcends what they can grasp with their ordinary consciousness—toward opportunities where they can continue to develop in the course of their karma. If you specifically consider the points that have just been made, it will be much easier for you to gain an understanding of the epidemic nature of diseases. We could cite a wide variety of examples, all of which show us how, based on the experiences of his time in Kamaloka, a person actively seeks out opportunities to contract this or that illness in order to gain, through overcoming it and through the unfolding of his self-healing powers, the forces that will lead him upward along the path of life as a whole.

[ 11 ] Earlier I said that if a person has acted largely under the influence of emotions, he will also experience, during the Kamaloka period, actions that were performed entirely under the influence of emotions. This will give them the tendency, in their new incarnation and in their own physical existence, to experience something that, by overcoming it, enables them to perform actions that can have a balancing effect on certain actions from their previous life. In particular, it is that form of illness which we know in modern times as diphtheria that manifests in many cases when such a karmic entanglement is present, where the person in question previously lived in such a way that they often acted out of all sorts of surges of emotion, affections, and so on.

[ 12 ] In the course of these lectures, we will hear much more about the causes of this or that illness. But we must now delve into even deeper foundations if we are to answer the question: How is it that, when a person enters existence through birth and brings with them, through their karma, the tendency to achieve one thing or another by overcoming this or that suffering, how is it that sometimes they succeed in truly triumphing, overcoming the illness, and absorbing forces within themselves that elevate them, while at other times they succumb and the illness remains victorious? Here we must go back to the spiritual principles that make illness in human life possible in the first place.

[ 13 ] The fact that human beings can fall ill at all, that they can even actively seek out illness—even as a result of their karma—ultimately stems from no other principles than those we have often allowed to come before our souls in the most varied contexts of our theosophical reflections. — We know that at a certain point in the Earth’s evolution, certain forces entered human evolution—forces we call the Luciferic forces—which belong to those beings who remained behind during the ancient Lunar evolution and did not progress far enough to have reached, so to speak, the normal stage of their Earthly evolution. Consequently, before the human ego could function in the appropriate manner, something emanating from these Luciferic beings was implanted into the human astral body. The influence of these Luciferic beings is therefore one that was primarily exerted upon our astral body in the past and which the human being retained in their astral body throughout their subsequent development. This Luciferic influence has various implications for human development. For our present purpose, however, it is important to emphasize that, by having the Luciferic forces within him, the human being had within himself a tempter to be less good than he would have been had the Luciferic influence not come; and likewise, as a result, he was influenced to act and judge more out of all manner of emotions, passions, and desires than he would have judged and acted had the Luciferic influence not been at work. Through this influence, human beings’ true individuality was led to be different, so to speak, to be more devoted to what we might call the world of desires than would otherwise have been the case. And this is how it came to be that human beings became much more deeply entangled in the physical earthly world than would otherwise have happened. Through the Luciferic influence, human beings press themselves more deeply into their physicality, identifying more with it than they would have done had no Luciferic influence come. For had the influence of the Luciferic beings not come, so much of what can entice human beings on Earth to desire this or that would not have come about. Human beings would have passed by the impressions of these or those temptations with indifference. Through Lucifer’s influence, the temptations of the outer sensory world arose; human beings took these temptations into themselves. The individuality, which was given through the ego, became imbued with the effects that arose from the Luciferic principle. And so it came to pass that, during their first earthly incarnations, human beings also succumbed to the first temptations of the Luciferic principle and carried these temptations with them into later lives. This means that the manner in which human beings succumbed to the temptations of the Luciferic principle became a component of their karma.

[ 14 ] If human beings had absorbed only this principle within themselves, they would have succumbed more and more to the temptations of the physical earthly world; they would, so to speak, have increasingly lost the prospect of ever breaking free from this physical earthly world. We know that the later influence—the Christ influence—counteracted the Luciferic principle and, as it were, restored the balance, so that in the course of his development, man once again received the means to drive this Luciferic influence out of himself. But with the Luciferic influence came something else as well. Because human beings had taken in the Luciferic influence into their astral bodies, the entire external world they entered also appeared to them quite differently than it would have if they had not been subject to the Luciferic influence. Lucifer penetrated into the inner being of human beings. With Lucifer within, human beings viewed the world around them. This clouded their vision of the earthly world, and the Ahrimanic influence now mingled with their external impressions. It was only through this that Ahriman could intervene and shape the external world into an illusion, because we had already created within ourselves the predisposition for illusion, for Maya. Thus, the Ahrimanic influence that drew into the external world surrounding human beings was the consequence of the Luciferic influence. We can say: Because the Luciferic forces were once within him, the human being absorbed the possibility of becoming more entangled in the sensory world than he would have been in sensory earthly life without the Luciferic influence. Through this, however, he also created the possibility of absorbing the Ahrimanic influence along with all external perceptions from the outside. And so, as the human individuality passes through the various earthly incarnations, the Luciferic influence lives within it, and as the result of the Luciferic influence, the Ahrimanic influence. These two forces are constantly at war within the human individuality. And the human individuality has become the arena for the struggle between Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 15 ] Even today, with their ordinary consciousness, human beings are still exposed both to the temptations of Lucifer, who works through the passions and emotions of their astral body, and to the temptations of Ahriman, who penetrates into human beings from the outside through errors and deceptions regarding the external world. As long as a human being lives in an incarnation and their concepts act as a barrier, so that what comes from Lucifer and Ahriman cannot penetrate more deeply and finds an obstacle in these concepts, what the human being does remains subject to moral or intellectual judgment. As long as a human being sins against morality between birth and death by following Lucifer, or sins against logic and sound thinking by following Ahriman, so long does this remain a matter of ordinary conscious soul life. But when a human being passes through the gate of death, the life of imagination, which is bound to the instrument of the brain, ceases. There a different form of conscious life begins. There, in fact, all the things that in life between birth and death are subject to moral or rational judgment descend into the depths of the human being and intervene in what, after the Kamaloka, works to organize the next existence and imprints itself upon the formative forces that now build up the threefold human physicality. There, errors arising from devotion to Ahriman become disease forces that infect the human being from the etheric body, and excesses—that is, things subject to moral judgment in life—become causes of disease that act more from the astral body.

[ 16 ] This shows us how our errors—including our conscious errors: lies and untruths—become causes of illness, provided we do not stop at a single incarnation but consider the effect of one incarnation on the next; and we see how Luciferic influences also become causes of illness in the same way. We can indeed say: We do not commit our errors with impunity! We bear the mark of our errors in our next incarnation, but we do so out of a higher rationality than that of our ordinary life, out of the rationality that instructs us during the time between death and new birth to make ourselves so strong and vigorous that we are no longer exposed to these temptations in the future. Thus, illnesses even take their place as powerful educators in our lives. — When we view illnesses in this way, we can literally see how either Luciferic or Ahrimanic influences are at work in the development of a disease. Once these things are understood by those who, under the influence of the spiritual-scientific worldview, will become healers, then the influence of these healers on the human organism will be far more intimate than it can be today.

[ 17 ] In this sense, we can truly gain insight into the nature of certain forms of illness. Let us take, for example, a disease such as pneumonia. It is an effect in the karmic sequence that arises because the person concerned, during their time in Kamaloka, can look back on a character that had within it a tendency and inclination toward sensual excesses, that had, so to speak, a need to live sensually. Let us not confuse what is now attributed to a previous consciousness with what arises in the consciousness of the next incarnation. This has nothing to do with that at first. However, what the human being sees during the Kamaloka period will transform in such a way that forces are imprinted upon them for processes that overcome pneumonia. For it is precisely in overcoming pneumonia, in the self-healing that the human being strives for in the process, that the human individuality works against the Luciferic forces, waging a veritable war against them. Therefore, in overcoming pneumonia lies an opportunity to shed what was a character flaw in a previous incarnation. Thus, we see the human struggle against the Luciferic forces actively at work in pneumonia.

[ 18 ] The situation presents itself differently when, in what we call pulmonary tuberculosis in today’s terminology, we observe the peculiar processes that occur when the self-healing forces come into action, manifesting themselves in such a way that the harmful influences arising there are surrounded and encircled by coverings such as connective tissue; then the whole area is filled with a matter containing calcium salts, which forms solid inclusions. A person can have such inclusions in their lungs, and far more people carry such things around with them than is generally believed; for these are the people in whom a tuberculous lung has entered a healing phase. Where such a process has taken place, a struggle has once again been waged by the human inner being against what Ahrimanic forces have wrought. It is a defensive process directed outward, a charge against what is brought about by external materiality, in order to lead to the independence of the human being in this sense.

[ 19 ] We have thus shown how, in fact, the two principles—the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic—are ultimately at work in the course of a disease. And in many respects, it could be demonstrated for this or that form of illness how one should actually distinguish between two types of diseases: Ahrimanic and Luciferic diseases. If one were to take this into account, one would also be able to derive the correct principles for the appropriate help that can be given to the sick. For Luciferic disease processes will require quite different help than Ahrimanic ones. If today, for example in external therapeutic procedures, forces are still applied in a rather uncritical manner—such as those found in modern electrotherapy, cold-water treatment, or similar methods—it must be said that spiritual science can shed light from the outset on whether one should apply one method or the other, by distinguishing whether one is dealing with a Luciferic or an Ahrimanic disease. No one should, for example, apply the method of electrotherapy to illnesses that originate from the Luciferic; rather, it should only be applied to Ahrimanic forms of disease. For in the case of Luciferic forms of illness, something that has absolutely nothing to do with the workings of Lucifer—namely, the principles of electricity—can never be of any help; for these fall within the realm of the Ahrimanic beings, although, of course, it is not only the Ahrimanic beings who make use of the forces of electricity. In contrast, a very special realm of the Luciferic is that which relates, roughly speaking, to warmth and cold. Everything that has to do with the human organism becoming warmer or colder, or with what makes it warmer or colder through external influences, belongs to the realm of Lucifer. And in all these cases where we are dealing with warmth or cold, we have a type of Luciferic disease form.

[ 20 ] Thus we see how karma operates in illness and how it works to overcome illness. Now it will no longer seem incomprehensible that the curability or incurability of an illness also lies within karma. If you realize that the goal—the karmic goal—of falling ill is to promote human development and make a person more perfect, then the prerequisite is that when a person, in accordance with the rationality they bring with them from the Kamaloka period upon entering a new existence, falls ill, they then develop those healing powers that signify a strengthening of their inner being and the possibility of ascending to a higher plane. Let us assume that the situation is such that, in the life he still has to live, the human being—by virtue of his general constitution and his remaining karma—possesses the strength to make further progress in this very life with what he has attained through the illness. Then the healing has a purpose. Then healing occurs, and in this case the person has achieved what they were meant to achieve and what was revealed by the presence of the illness. By overcoming the illness, they have enabled themselves to possess perfect powers where they previously had imperfect ones. If, through his karma, he is endowed with such powers and, through the favorable circumstances of his past destiny, has been placed in the world in such a way that he can apply these new powers and act to be of benefit to himself and others, then healing occurs; then he winds his way through the illness.

[ 21 ] Let us now assume that the situation for a person is such that they have overcome their illness and developed healing powers, and now face a life that would place demands on them which cannot be met with the degree of perfection they have already attained: Although they would achieve some things through their recovery from illness, it would still not be possible for them to achieve so much—because their remaining karma does not permit it—that they could become a source of healing for others with what they have achieved. Then what happens is that his deeper subconscious says: Here you have no opportunity to receive the full power of what you are actually meant to have. You had to enter this incarnation because you had to attain the degree of perfection that you can only achieve in the physical body by overcoming an illness. You had to achieve that; but you cannot develop it further. Now you must enter into circumstances where your physical body and other forces do not disturb you and where you can freely process what you have gained through the illness. — That is to say, such an individual seeks death in order to process further, between death and new birth, what they cannot process in the life between birth and death. Such a soul passes through the life between death and new birth in order to further develop its constitution with the all the stronger forces it has gained by overcoming the illness, so that it may work all the more effectively in the new life. In this way, the very presence of an illness can effect a kind of down payment, which is only then supplemented after passing through death to become what it is meant to be.

[ 22 ] If we look at the matter this way, we will have to admit: It seems entirely justified by karma that one illness ends in healing, while another ends in death. — If we view illnesses in this way, we will gain, from a higher perspective through karma, a kind of reconciliation, a profound reconciliation with life; for we will know that it lies in the law of karma that, even when an illness ends in death, the human being is uplifted, that even in such a case the illness has the goal of raising the human being to a higher level. Now, no one should draw the conclusion from this that we might even have to actively wish for death in certain cases of illness. No one should say that, because the decision regarding what is to occur—whether healing or incurability—belongs to a higher rationality than that which we can grasp with our ordinary consciousness. With our ordinary consciousness, we must modestly remain within the world between birth and death when it comes to such questions. With our higher consciousness, however, we may indeed take the standpoint that even accepts death as a gift from the higher spiritual powers. But with that consciousness which is meant to help and intervene in life, we must not presume to take this higher viewpoint. There we could easily err and would intervene in an unheard-of way in something in which we must never intervene: in the sphere of human freedom. If we can help a person so that they develop their self-healing powers, or by aiding nature ourselves so that healing may occur, then we must do so. And if the decision is to be made as to whether a person should continue living or whether they would be better served by death, then it can never be made in any other way than such that our help can be a help in healing. If this is the case, we place it within the person’s own individuality to apply their powers, and medical assistance can only be such that supports them in this. Then it does not interfere with human individuality. It would be quite different if we were to promote a person’s incurability in such a way that they sought their further progress in another world. There we would be intervening in their individuality and handing their individuality over to another sphere of activity. Then we would have imposed our will upon that other individuality. We must leave this decision to the individuality itself. In other words: We must do as much as possible to ensure that a healing takes place. For all considerations that lead to a healing arise from the consciousness that is appropriate for our Earth; all other measures would extend beyond our earthly sphere; there, forces other than those that fall within our ordinary consciousness must intervene.

[ 23 ] Thus we see that a correct karmic understanding of the curability and incurability of illnesses leads us to do everything in our power to help the person during their illness; and on the other hand, it also leads us to accept, to our satisfaction, any decision made from other spheres. We do not need anything else with regard to this other decision. What we need is to find a perspective so that the incurability of an illness does not weigh us down, as if the world contained only the imperfect, the terrible, and the bad. Karmic understanding does not paralyze our energy for healing. On the other hand, karmic understanding will also bring us back into harmony with the heaviest fate regarding the incurability of this or that illness. Thus, we have seen today how karmic understanding alone enables us to perceive and comprehend the course of an illness in the right way, so that we can literally see the karmic effects from our past lives shining into the present one. Specific examples will present themselves to us when we discuss the next questions.

[ 24 ] Now it will be our task to distinguish between two specific forms of illness: those that arise from within the human being and appear to be brought about specifically by karma, and those illnesses that seem to befall us by chance because we are exposed to external harm, because this or that happens to us. In short, the question is: How can we arrive at a karmic understanding even when, for example, we are struck by a train? That is to say, how are so-called “accidental” illnesses to be understood in terms of karma?