Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Physiology and Therapeutics
GA 314

9 October 1920 p.m., Dornach

Lecture IV

Tonight I would like to add a few things to the lectures I have been giving to you in these past few days as a substitute for the scheduled lecturer. I would like to point aphoristically, as it were, to something that may still be able to clarify a principle for the fructification of medical-therapeutic study through spiritual science. Obviously for the reasons already mentioned this morning, I cannot speak too much detail here; that is due not so much to the shortness of time—that too, naturally—but more to the fact that detailed knowledge must be held for a really professional gathering of physicians, again for the reasons I presented this morning.

Nevertheless, I would still like to contribute something in this direction, something that can lead to a general understanding of the nature of medicine so that a kind of social influence can emanate from a spiritual scientific study of medicine, bringing about a certain trust between the public and physicians. The better our understanding of the nature of medicine, the more effectively will medicine be able to work.

This morning I directed your attention to the fact that the life of the human organism consists of the nerve-sense system—the head system—working oppositely to the metabolic-limb system; these two are then balanced by the rhythmic system. All breakdown processes, the completely necessary breakdown processes of the nerve-sense system, are continuously brought into harmony and exchange with the upbuilding processes of the metabolic-limb system. You can imagine (and this can be verified in detail) that because the two systems of the human organism work in a thoroughly opposite way, they also work upon one another. Thus what goes on in the details of the metabolic-limb system, for example, should not be influenced too strongly from the head system, bypassing the rhythmic system; when this happens an activity suitable only to the head system works its way into the metabolic limb system.

If we adequately penetrate what we are concerned with here, we will come to understand how such intrusions of one system upon the other can take place. It will be understood, in other words, how the head system, the nerve-sense system (in which there must also be metabolic processes, as I have explained to you), can occasionally be overcome by metabolic processes that make the head system resemble the metabolic-limb system inwardly and functionally. The reverse can also take place, because the same functional system that is normally active in the head is also active in the metabolic-limb system, though in a subordinate way Occasionally this activity can get the upper hand, can become too intense in the metabolic-limb system, where it should only reach a certain level, having its actual significance in the head.

This is possible, in other words, because the nerve-sense activity that is also present in the metabolic-limb system strongly impregnates the metabolic-limb system with head activity, which thus becomes predominant in the abdomen, for example. Said in a better way, it becomes an activity whose intensity is too great. Then what should normally take place as breakdown processes only in the nerve-sense system will take place in the abdominal organs. Of course it will take on another form in the abdominal system, but it will nevertheless cause mischief there. In fact, by looking in this way into the organization of human nature, we can see in the phenomenon I have just described the development of a serious human illness, namely, typhus abdominalis. The manifestations of typhus may certainly be studied empirically, but they can be understood and placed within the entire human organization only if one is able to penetrate the human being in this way from the standpoint of a rational medicine, if I may use this Goethean designation.

I have also shown you this morning how it is possible to make the transition from the physiological-pathological to the therapeutic by attempting not only to penetrate what goes on in human nature but at the same time to penetrate what goes on in outer nature. Processes take place in outer nature which, if penetrated in the right way, can be introduced into the human organism by administering the appropriate substances. Because outer nature—the plant nature, for example—works in a certain way by virtue of its striving upward, working in an opposite sense to what strives downward in the human being, substances from plants can restrain certain processes that are unfolding improperly among the three systems of the human organism.

It is interesting to explore how what I presented to you this morning about the plant world and its connection with the human being can be penetrated in a similar way in relation to the mineral world. In order to penetrate this matter in relation to the mineral world, however, we must first gain certain anthroposophical understandings of the human being.

The soul-spiritual, the etheric, and the physical are all active in the human being. As we will have been able to discern through the considerations in these lectures, this soul-spiritual element works in such a way that it can be penetrated by full ego-consciousness. If this is the case, the human being is organized in the normal way, as it were. On the other hand, the ego-consciousness may be weakened, may step back in some way. If the soul-spiritual element kicks up some kind of fuss, going its own way without being penetrated in the right way by the ego, then various types of the so-called mental illnesses arise.

Everything that is soul-spiritual in the human being, however, as well as what in anthroposophical terminology is called the astral—that is, the more subconscious, dreamlike, or entirely unconscious soul life—and also what is understood as ego-activity, as the fully conscious soul life, has its physical carrier by means of which it works in a certain way in physical life. We may therefore say that if we study the human being we must direct our gaze not merely to what expresses itself as ego-activity, which is a purely spiritual activity we must rather direct our gaze to the actual, carrier of this ego-activity in the organism. We find that the actual carrier of this ego-activity is essentially anchored in the blood.

I could certainly demonstrate to you in detail how, especially through the particular activity of the blood, through the working together of the metabolic activity in the blood with the rhythmic activity in the blood, the ego works with the rest of the soul element, but to go into this now would lead too far. What should interest us more right now, however, is the bridge from physiology and pathology to therapy. There we find something exceptionally important. We can influence the physical scaffolding, as it were—the physical carrier—of a soul-spiritual element, of the fully conscious ego, let us say, through certain processes that we bring about in it. The physical carrier then withdraws from the ego-activity, as it were, yet continues to perform a function similar to what otherwise takes place only under the influence of the ego-activity.

Drawing

Let me refer to a specific case in this connection. Imagine, please—I will sketch this for you—that what is active as ego-activity builds up, through the human blood system, something like a scaffolding, a scaffolding of forces. I will designate the ego-activity itself by these colored lines next to the line of this force-scaffolding, the line that designates the soul-spiritual element of the ego-activity (see drawing, red). If one can now influence the force-organization lying at the basis of the ego-activity in a certain way, it could be possible for this force-organization to become independent, as it were, to tear itself away and as physical activity, as scaffolding of physical force-activity, to separate itself from the soul-spiritual and yet remain like an image of the soul-spiritual activity, though working merely physically. In a certain way we thus incorporate into ourselves a kind of double that works deeply in the subconscious but that work; similarly—though only in space, which means only physically—to the way it normally works when surrendering itself as an unencumbered instrument for the ego-activity.

This can be brought about by introducing too much phosphorus into the human being, by administering to someone a powerful dose of phosphorus. (This does not actually need to be done; in elementary cases one can already see this. It is always possible to find the point designated by Goethe as the one behind which nature reveals its manifest secret, if one follows the appropriate path.) It is possible to separate out the bodily carrier of this ego-activity from the ego-activity itself. Then this ego-activity is carried out in the body as in an image. What would be the result of this? The result would be that, particularly under the influence of the phosphorus forces, the blood activity would proliferate beyond its normal extent, particularly in the bony system. In the bony system a kind of hyperemia would arise. In this way, through this hyperemia, an excessive blood activity in the region of the bone cartilage would run rampant, and the calcification process of the bones would be opposed.

I have described to you what could result from treating someone with too much phosphorus, where the function that phosphorus is normally able to fulfill in the human organism is excessively enhanced. Those forces that are outside in the world, however, anchored in the different minerals, are present in the human being in another form, as it were, in a super-sensible form, and they can be active within the human being. Man is a microcosm in a certain respect. If these forces that are normally anchored in phosphorus outside in nature are active within the human being, as can occur particularly in early childhood, then the illness rickets occurs. By penetrating the connection of the human being with the surrounding world, we have been able to ascertain that the manifestation of rickets in the human organism is a process similar to the one that takes place outside in nature in the manifestation of phosphorus. I am speaking to you aphoristically and obviously in a way in which not all the parts of a sequence of proof are connected; by means of a specific case, which is actually only indicating the direction, we can see how to search in a spiritual scientific way for this connection between the human being and the rest of the world.

Drawing

Now, however, it is possible to proceed further. I have shown you earlier today how, with the metabolic-limb system on one side and the nerve-sense system on the other side, the balancing rhythmic system in between, these two systems work together in a way (see drawing). You see, in fact, that what serves as an irregularity in the metabolic-limb system, bringing about illness, is just what induces health in the head system. Thus in the human head system there are always certain functions that stem from phosphorus, though from a very slight quantity of phosphorus that is found in the human brain. We have already become acquainted with this phosphorus-activity from the other side, in the way I have described to you, as something that brings the proper breakdown in the calcification processes in the metabolic-limb organism. These phosphorus processes in the brain, however, must be present wherever there is to be breakdown and where, above all, this breakdown is to be continually active. In other words, because the phosphorus process is present in the brain, we continuously have a kind of manifestation of rickets in the brain in, you could say, a status nascendi.

This is precisely the basis of our brain-activity, that bone continuously wants to be formed, but this bone formation is continuously inhibited once the skull has developed to surround the human brain in the right way. In the human brain—and this reveals itself to human perception—we have a continuous striving toward bone formation, but this bone formation reaches its conclusion at a certain age, at which time this activity of bone formation ceases. We thus have here something that is really conducive to illness but that is balanced from the other side, from the other pole of the organism; we have here a continuous striving toward rickets.

It is interesting that a rhythm such as this one that can be observed in the human being is also present outside in the rest of nature, though appearing in a certain respect as the opposite. If we look at the remarkable significance of phosphorus for the human brain, we have to say to ourselves that as phosphorus is taken in it is worked through up to the head. It undergoes a transformation within the human organism itself. It follows the same direction as the growth in the human being. It incorporates itself into this direction of growth in the human being, thus reducing its own activity to a minimum, as it were, diluting it. By means of this dilution the restrained rickets of the head can become the carrier of just those soul-spiritual processes that must be undertaken by means of the human head's mediation.

It is interesting that if very small doses of phosphorus are administered to the human being in the right way, rather than the somewhat larger, ordinarily perceptible doses of phosphorus, something different is achieved even in the function of phosphorus. If these small doses are administered to the human organism, they work in the same way as phosphorus works in the human brain. They now work in the rest of the organism as small doses able to restrain the rickets process if it has begun in children. Phosphorus in small quantities, in the smallest doses, can therefore serve as a remedy against rickets. In a more comprehensive sense, phosphorus can generally be used as a remedy against everything in which this ego-scaffolding, the physical ego-scaffolding (see Drawing 1, white), which I have sketched under the red, is freed within the organism, as a result of illness, from the actual soul activity: in other words, phosphorus brings back the soul activity, returning the condition to normal.

I would have to present a very complicated exposition about human nature for you to be able to see what actually lies at the basis of the dispute between allopathy and homoeopathy. In certain areas, however, you could say that what homoeopathy reveals becomes perfectly evident, as in these cases I have indicated to you. With certain small doses of phosphorus, or also sulphur (in short, something combustible—I will return to this) rickets as well as other inflammatory conditions can be healed, illnesses that stem from a blood-activity that has been freed from the ego-being.

You see, then, that when we begin to study the human being as suggested by spiritual science, as in this case, the connection of the human being with outer, inorganic nature becomes transparent. What I have just touched on here today can definitely be extended to other inorganic substances. One need only pursue this in detail. It is precisely this attempt to bring about a union of pathology, physiology, and therapy that requires a devoted study of the world within and the world outside of the human being. We may call phosphorus and sulphur combustible substances. If this study is really extended further, combustible substances reveal themselves as working in a way thoroughly akin to what has been described of phosphorus. They work so as to re-insert the emancipated ego-scaffolding into the ego-activity.

Certain salts work in the opposite way, substances now that are not combustible but that dissolve in water and then precipitate out again when the water is cooled. These salts, carbonates and other salts, work in such a way that they call forth a too-intense union of the soul-spiritual, particularly the ego-activity, with the scaffolding; they do not loosen it from the scaffolding but rather impress the soul-spiritual too strongly into it. They can therefore be used as remedies if this connection is for some reason too loose.

We can therefore say that if we understand the actual results of introducing a substance into the organism, how it influences the entire organization, then we can see how to work against a process that is proceeding abnormally and must be countered.

For certain processes, for example the process lying at the basis of pulmonary tuberculosis, it is precisely such salt-like substances (therefore soluble substances) that are particularly effective. What pulmonary tuberculosis is demanding is something to work against a process which, in the human organism, is the opposite of what takes place when a salt dissolves into a solution. What is important here is that broadening one's knowledge about all of human nature leads into the human being's connection with all his outer, worldly environment.

In these thoroughly aphoristic considerations I can only offer examples. What I have just been speaking about could be illustrated by still other examples. We can find such examples everywhere, but let us take an example from a realm that can at the same time lead us into the whole connection of the soul-spiritual with the physical. What is transmitted through the nerve-sense system in human life constitutes the conscious life of the human being from waking to falling asleep. We are thus able to say, more or less, that the head system is the expression for the conscious life of the human being. The metabolic-limb system is not the expression for the conscious life of the human being in the same way. We go through the world with conscious head but with unconscious limbs. These limbs become conscious only when they are touched in some way, when they endure an insult of some sort. We may therefore say that the normal condition for the head system, for the nerve-sense system, is waking consciousness, whereas for the opposite system in the human being it is unconsciousness. It is possible, however, to produce artificially in the human being a kind of consciousness for this other system, for the metabolic-limb system. This happens through massage, for example, which consists of making conscious through outer measures what otherwise remains unconscious. What is important here is that through massage an improvement can be brought about of an inadequate connection between the soul-spiritual and the physical. Take the case of a person who has a tendency to illness because his soul-spiritual element is insufficiently inclined to penetrate his metabolic-limb system. Then the physical aspect of this metabolic-limb system can be supported by massaging it, by lifting it, to a certain degree, from the condition of the spiritual into the condition of consciousness; the effectiveness of the system is thus supported, thereby calling forth a stronger permeation of this system by the soul-spiritual.

If it is understood how this metabolic-limb system works, if it is known, for example, that what pulses in the arms and hands, what pulses there as the soul-spiritual element, continues inwardly and rules the inner metabolism of the human being, then it will also be known what it means to bring about a partial consciousness in the arms and hands through massage. It means that the soul-spiritual element in the metabolic system is enhanced—the metabolic system that works within the human being in a constructive way, bringing about digestion, the taking up of substance.

If one finds, therefore, that a person is suffering inwardly and organically from metabolic disturbances, metabolic disturbances that are responsible for the inability of his nourishment to integrate itself properly in the body or for the results of this nourishment to proceed further into the upbuilding processes, if one finds, therefore, that the metabolism that proceeds inward is not working properly, then it is possible in certain cases to be of some help with arm and hand massage (of course detailed knowledge is necessary to carry this out in the right way). Such assistance consists of supporting the soul-spiritual element in its activity through the degree of consciousness brought about by means of the massage.

If the legs and feet are massaged, something else occurs. The soul-spiritual element that permeates the legs and feet is connected organically with processes of elimination, with breakdown processes. One will be able to offer assistance with a massage of the legs and feet, therefore, if the digestion in the direction of the process of elimination is not being accomplished in the right way.

You can see that if the nature of medicine is illuminated in this way by spiritual science, such insights can be arrived at not simply by chance in an empirical way, should they happen to present themselves empirically; rather it becomes possible to work fully consciously to cultivate the connections among physiology, pathology, and therapy in the most varied domains. I am saying these things to you, as I have mentioned previously, only to illuminate the directions one must pursue here. I know very well how astonishing such things appear because it is not possible, of course, to bring together all the details here.

If we consider an illness like diabetes mellitus, for example, which presents doctors with so many concerns, we must again look to the connection of the soul-spiritual element and particularly the conscious soul-spiritual element, that element permeated with the ego—with the physical carrier of this ego-activity. Something different now takes place from what was described in the first case today. Let us assume that this ego-activity becomes too great within the human organism. It extends itself beyond its proper measure. Then abnormal processes of elimination take place like those we find in the diabetic. In this case we are dealing with an excessive ego-activity in the organic itself, with an excessively deep immersion of the ego into the organic, so that through this deep immersion something is driven outward in a way that manifests particularly in the diabetic.

Let us now shift our gaze again away from what goes on within the human being and direct it to what goes on in the world outside the human being. In this world outside we have plants. This morning we already became aware of how plants in a certain way develop a process from below upward, a process that develops in the human being from above downward. What takes place in diabetes as the hypertrophy of ego-activity in the organism actually proceeds in the direction opposite to that of plant growth. If we are able to discern the right function in the growing plant, then under certain circumstances we can establish a relationship between what works downward in the diabetic and upward in the plant. We must conceive of the plant in such a way, however, that we say: the plant is a being; it is also physical; it grows, it reproduces, and therefore it has an etheric body. For spiritual perception it also has an etheric body, but it does not bring it to the point of inner soul movement; therefore it has no astral body, and also no ego-activity. Nevertheless it grows toward the ego-activity, the astral activity. The same thing that the plant unfolds from below upward the human being unfolds from above downward.

If we understand that we must observe what actually goes on in the plant, seeing how it grows in the opposite direction to which the human being develops his ego, from above downward, then we find how something arises in the plant element that is able to have an inner relationship to this inner ego-activity through the fact that it also has something to do with combustibility. Earlier I drew your attention to combustible substances. Now we see a combustible, volatile substantiality, a substantiality approaching combustion that develops out of the plant in the etheric oils. If we see the etheric oils appearing in certain plants, then we can discover in a study such as the one I have been suggesting, that this formation of etheric oils is the opposite of the activity enacted by the ego-activity pressing itself into the human organism through which a person becomes diabetic. If what is present in the outer world as the opposite is introduced into the human being in the right way, it is then possible to work against diabetes mellitus.

In this case this must be done by adding these etheric oils to baths, for example, or adding the plants themselves from which these oils are developed, allowing the diabetic to bathe in them. In this way the forces that the plant unfolds in the etheric oils work from outside inward against the forces that bring about diabetes. We will be able to help the person afflicted with this illness particularly by means of such baths.

I am only introducing a few individual examples here out of the rich wealth of examples that could be presented: I offered a large number of them this spring in the course for physicians.1Rudolf Steiner, Spiritual Science and Medicine, twenty lectures given to physicians in Dornach, 1920. Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1975. I am introducing them here only to illustrate the principles involved, but you can see from these examples how medicine can gradually become rational. These are examples through which one really comes to see the process taking place within the human being and the process in outer nature; one comes to see how these two processes either support each other or work against each other and therefore how a process in the human organism can be restrained, how one can work toward healing. If we extend this way of studying into knowledge of the physical human being and its connections with the soul-spiritual human being, we will progress further and further.

You know that in modern medicine, according to the natural scientific view, the problem of heredity plays a tremendous role. This problem, however, is treated in a thoroughly abstract and external way. Through outer science it is possible to make very few connections with what is actually active in human nature. Now I would like to present something to you that can only be arrived at out of a rich anthroposophical investigation. I will present it to you as a result of such an investigation: the human being is, in fact, formed out of the whole rest of the world, which belongs to him as the earthly world and also as the extraterrestrial world. He is formed out of this in various ways. We find, for example, that the female organism is formed out of nature, out of the cosmos, in such a way that there is a predominance in the female organism of those forces that are less bound to the forces of the earth, as it were. In the female organism there is something strongly extraterrestrial. In the male organism forces are primarily developed that are connected with earthly life. In ordinary life this does not come so strongly into consideration, but it must be considered in reproduction. In reproduction what matters is that the forces active in the female organism and contributing to reproduction are actually the transference of what inserts itself as the extraterrestrial element into general human nature. What draws the human being down into the earthly world, however, is inserted into the male organism.

Now let us consider what is actually present in the human being through his earthly environment. The most noticeable thing in man through his earthly environment is the ego-activity. This ego-activity gives the earthly evolution of the human being its full meaning. We must evolve ourselves from other worlds into the earthly world in order to be able to develop the ego-activity fully in our soul-spiritual element. I have already indicated to you how this ego-activity is bound to the scaffolding of forces mediated by the blood. We must therefore say that what is primarily inserted into the blood, working in accordance with the ego-activity, is brought about by the male personality by way of reproduction. What inserts the extraterrestrial into the human being, which must first be penetrated by the ego-activity, stems more from the female side.

Thus we see male and female working together in this way in reproduction, and only through having insight into this are we able to gain correct concepts of heredity. To begin with, the female seed, the female germ, is touched by the male influence, and this female germ has a certain independence in the female organism. We must say that if we have before us a mature female organism, this extraterrestrial aspect works primarily in the rest of the female organism; in the part of the female organism giving rise to the formation of the germ, it is not active, particularly not after conception. Particularly the female germ that has undergone conception has a certain independence so that what it signifies as a transmitter of the ego-activity is transferred independently onto the descendants in a certain way.

If these things are known, they can be applied so that phenomena confronting us in the outer world illustrate what was first gained through spiritual vision. Through spiritual vision it becomes clear that something extraterrestrial is, in fact, anchored in the female organism and that the earthly, which adheres particularly to the blood-activity, is transmitted through the male organism. It becomes evident that through this transmittal the female ovum gains a certain independence, developing separately, as it were, from the rest of the extraterrestrial female organism by means of the fertilization.

A process such as this, which one comes to know soul-spiritually, can then stand in the background when one wishes to explain a remarkable phenomenon such as hemophilia. The curious fact emerges with this illness that there are people who suffer from an inadequate coagulation of the blood, so that the least injury—often even without a verifiable injury—causes them to lose a great deal of blood, tending toward hemorrhage. This illness has a most unusual characteristic: males originating from hemophiliac families do not manifest the symptoms if they are borne by women from non-hemophiliac families; women from hemophiliac families, on the other hand, do not get hemophilia through heredity, but if they have children, the males to whom they give birth will contract hemophilia. This means that hemophilia passes through the woman. This points us to the independence of the germ, about which I have just spoken. It points us to the outer phenomenon that can illustrate what we came to know through spiritual vision.

I have presented something to you in a narrative way which may be recounted as follows. I have shown you how on the one hand it is possible to look into the being of man through spiritual vision, into the concrete being of man, into his upbuilding and breakdown processes, into his processes of health and disease, which are actually in a continuous interaction and between which a balance must be sought. On the other hand, I have shown you how, through spiritual vision, it is possible to find the reciprocal relationship of the human being to his environment and thereby to build a bridge from physiology and pathology to therapy. Finally I wanted to show you with a specific example (I have selected an extreme case, hemophilia and the hereditary conditions connected with it) how, if one looks in the right way at nature in the cases where nature reveals her manifest secret, it is possible everywhere to receive an illustration of what was first known by spiritual scientific means. The objection often raised in this regard therefore has no validity; this objection is that a person who cannot yet see into the spiritual world has no way of finding any proof for what spiritual science maintains. This is not the case. What is important is on the one hand to be able to receive the results of spiritual science without dogmatism and belief in authority, and on the other hand to receive them without previously acquired, prejudiced skepticism. One simply receives them. One doesn't say, “I believe them,” nor does one rashly refuse them; rather one takes them and verifies them in relation to outer reality.

When you apply what may initially appear paradoxical to you, even incredible, drawn down as it is from the spiritual world through super-sensible vision in spiritual investigation, you will see that if you apply it in life, if you ask life, it will be confirmed in the points that matter. You will receive empirical confirmation everywhere for what spiritual investigation discovers. People today who refuse knowledge of the spiritual world with the excuse that they themselves are not able to see into the spiritual world are like the person who sees a shaped piece of iron (this was sketched) and says, “I will shoe my horse with that, for it is a horseshoe.” If one were to say to him, “It would be a mistake to shoe a horse with it, because it is a magnet, it has magnetic forces,” he would reply, “I don't see any magnetic forces—to me it is a horseshoe.” The spiritual is in everything material, and we are living in an age in which this spiritual element must be sought. A person who wishes to investigate matter, who wishes to ask questions without seeking the spirit, is like the one who uses the magnet to shoe his horse, who therefore does not really know how things in the material world are to be used.

Though what I have presented to you today had to be full of gaps and aphoristic in nature, I simply wished to indicate the direction in which medical studies must proceed in the future, for these medical studies are so intimately connected with the social question. Just as the human world can be healed socially only if spiritual knowledge is carried into social judgments, so our medicine can bring health only if spiritual vision is carried into it.

We are not dream-spinners in any realm. We do not by any means want dilettantes in any realm. What is important is serious research, research that has developed the fundamental principle often applied today. If a hypothesis is dangled here or there, it is said that it is merely a comfortable tool fur the grasping of phenomena. Even in mathematics the point has been reached of hatching such hypotheses or directions of thought. Spiritual science is firmly rooted in the principle that nothing should be avoided that may be necessary for the progress of human life, that nothing should he avoided in applying forces in the direction of what is required for this. From the course of human evolution it is clearly perceptible today that the signs of the time are saying to us: it is no longer possible to progress in the old tracks.

What we have here in Dornach has only been able to develop because it is no longer possible to progress in the old tracks; new guidelines are to be sought for here. We are specialized enough. What is important now is to bring together the individual specialties again. Perhaps you will see from this course that the spiritual forces that will bring together these individual specialties must flow from a center. In order to do this, however, one must depart from those comfortable paths that are so frequently sought today. The fruits will lie above all in the direction of the progress of humanity. For this reason, I would have especially liked it if everything that has been said here out of spiritual science could have been said also by specialists. Therefore I was not so pleased at having to substitute for you in an important area; this is how things happened, however, and nothing else could have been done, so we must simply accept what happened.

Most important, however, whether a specialist or a general observer were to present what is necessary here, would be to show that even in this difficult area of medicine progress is possible only through fructification by spiritual investigation. This would have been revealed more clearly if someone could have stepped forward in this area who could speak both out of the tradition of the time, out of everything that the time itself is able to offer medicine, and out of an open sense for spiritual science. Such an individual could have shown that it is possible to stand at the pinnacle of contemporary medical science, of official medical science, and still to be such a good spiritual scientist that he can only believe, can only bear this medicine if it can be illuminated by spiritual science. Whether this became sufficiently evident to you, despite the fact that I had to replace the specialists in medicine, I do not know, but I do hope that there will be other occasions to show, in a way illuminated by outer circumstances, that medicine can work into the future only if the spirit penetrates it, as is intended or at least as is striven for here in this Goetheanum: only if the Goethean spirit is absorbed into medicine.

Vierter Vortrag

Heute abend möchte ich Ihnen noch einzelne Ergänzungen geben zu jenen Vorträgen, die ich in diesen Tagen hier unfreiwillig habe halten müssen. Ich möchte gewissermaßen aphoristisch auf einiges hindeuten, das doch aufklärend noch wirken kann auf dasjenige, was als Prinzipien für eine Befruchtung gerade des medizinisch-therapeutischen Studiums durch die Geisteswissenschaft dienen kann. Es wird ja selbstverständlich aus den Gründen, die ich schon heute morgen angedeutet habe, nicht sehr in Details eingegangen werden können, nicht so sehr wegen der Kürze der Zeit — das auch natürlich —, sondern vor allen Dingen darum, weil dennoch die Detailerkenntnisse einer eigentlichen fachlichen Auseinandersetzung vorbehalten werden müssen, wiederum aus den Gründen, die ich schon heute morgen vorgebracht habe. Jedoch möchte ich gerade nach dieser Richtung hin einiges noch beitragen, welches zum allgemeinen Verständnis des medizinischen Wesens führen kann, so daß gerade eine Art sozialer Wirkung aus diesem Teile geisteswissenschaftlich medizinischer Betrachtung hervorgehen kann, nämlich die Begründung eines gewissen Vertrauens zwischen Publikum und Ärzteschaft. Je besser das Verständnis sein wird, das man dem medizinischen Wesen wird entgegenbringen können, desto besser wird auch dieses medizinische Wesen wirken können.

Nun habe ich Sie heute morgen darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie eigentlich das Leben des menschlichen Organismus darinnen besteht, daß in völlig entgegengesetzter Weise das Nerven-Sinnessystem, kurz, das Kopfsystem und das Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem wirken, die dann durch das rhythmische System ihren Ausgleich erfahren. Es wird gewissermaßen alles dasjenige, was die Abbauprozesse sind, die ganz notwendigen Abbauprozesse des Nerven-Sinnessystems, fortwährend in Einklang und Austausch gebracht mit dem, was die Aufbauprozesse sind des Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystems. Sie können sich denken — und man kann das im einzelnen nachweisen —, daß daher die beiden Systeme des menschlichen Organismus durchaus im entgegengesetzten Sinne wirken, daß sie auch gewissermaßen aufeinander so wirken, daß, was in dem einzelnen, zum Beispiel im Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem vorgeht, nicht zu stark dadurch beeinträchtigt werden darf, daß gewissermaßen mit einem Unberücksichtigtlassen des rhythmischen Systems diejenige Tätigkeit, die eigentlich nur geeignet ist für das Kopfsystem, hereinwirkt in das Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem. Und wenn man einmal in einer hinreichenden Weise durchschaut hat, um was es sich da handelt, wird man auch begreiflich finden, wie allerdings solche Übergriffe des einen Systems auf das andere stattfinden können, wie, mit anderen Worten, das Kopfsystem, das Nerven-Sinnessystem — in dem ja auch Stoffwechselprozesse vor sich gehen müssen, wie ich Ihnen auseinandergesetzt habe —, einmal auch überwuchert werden kann von solchen Stoffwechselprozessen, so daß gewissermaßen diese Stoffwechselprozesse das Kopfsystem innerlich funktionell verähnlichen dem Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem. Und das Umgekehrte kann stattfinden. Es kann, weil ja im Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem durchaus auch, wenn auch im normalen Leben in untergeordneter Weise, dasselbe Funktionensystem wirksam ist wie im Kopfe, einmal übergreifen, gewissermaßen eine zu große Intensität gewinnen im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem diejenige Tätigkeit, die dort nur ein bestimmtes Maß erreichen sollte und ihre eigentliche Bedeutung im Haupte hat.

Es kann, mit anderen Worten, einmal die Nerven-Sinnestätigkeit, die auch vorhanden ist im Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem, dadurch, daß auf sie stark imprägnierend die Kopftätigkeit wirkt, zum Beispiel im Unterleibe eine überwiegende werden, oder besser gesagt eine solche werden, deren Intensität zu groß ist. Dann wird dasjenige in den Organen des Unterleibes vor sich gehen, was normalerweise als Abbauprozesse nur im Nerven-Sinnessystem vor sich gehen soll. Es wird natürlich im Unterleibssystem eine andere Gestalt annehmen, aber es wird dort, ich möchte sagen, sein Unwesen treiben. Wir können in der Tat, wenn wir so hineinblicken in die Organisation des Menschenwesens, in dem, was ich eben beschrieben habe, die Entstehung einer schweren menschlichen Erkrankung erkennen, nämlich des Typhus abdominalis. Der Typhus kann gewiß äußerlich empirisch beobachtet werden hinsichtlich seiner Erscheinung, aber verstanden und hineingestellt in die ganze menschliche Organisation kann er nur werden, wenn man in dieser Weise, ich möchte sagen, vom Standpunkt einer rationellen Medizin aus — um diese goethesche Bezeichnungsweise zu gebrauchen — das Menschenwesen durchschaut. Ich habe Ihnen dann auch heute morgen gezeigt, wie man übergehen kann vom Physiologisch-Pathologischen zum Therapeutischen, indem man nicht nur dasjenige zu durchschauen versucht, was im Menschenwesen vor sich geht, sondern mit zu durchschauen versucht dasjenige, was in der äußeren Natur vor sich geht. In der äußeren Natur finden Prozesse statt, die, wenn man sie in der richtigen Weise durchschaut, eingeführt werden können durch Übertragung der entsprechenden Stoffe in den menschlichen Organismus, und die dort, weil in einer gewissen Weise die äußere Natur, sagen wir, die Pflanzennatur durch ihr Emporstrebendes im entgegengesetzten Sinne wirkt wie das Hinunterstrebende der Menschenwesenheit, dort gewisse Prozesse aufhalten, die in unrichtiger Weise spielen zwischen den drei Systemen des menschlichen Organismus.

Interessant ist zu beobachten, wie dasjenige, was ich Ihnen heute morgen mehr dargestellt habe für die pflanzliche Welt und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Menschen, auch für die mineralische Welt durchschaut werden kann. Da müssen wir aber, um für die mineralische Welt die Sache zu durchschauen, zu gewissen anthroposophischen Erkenntnissen über den Menschen greifen.

Im Menschen wirkt das Geistig-Seelische, das Ätherische, das Physische. Dieses Geistig-Seelische wirkt so — Sie haben es ja durch die Auseinandersetzung dieser Vorträge erkennen können —, daß es durchdrungen sein kann von dem vollen Ich-Bewußtsein. Dann ist der Mensch gewissermaßen in seiner normalen Organisation. Oder es kann auch das Ich-Bewußtsein irgendwie abgelähmt sein, zurücktreten. Wenn dann das Geistig-Seelische in irgendeiner Weise rumort, seine eigenen Wege geht, ohne daß es in der richtigen Weise von dem Ich durchdrungen wird, dann entstehen die verschiedenen Gebiete der sogenannten geistigen Erkrankung. Aber alles dasjenige, was geistig-seelisch am Menschen ist, sowohl, ich möchte sagen, das, was man, anthroposophisch benannt, unter dem Astralischen versteht — das ist das mehr unterbewußte, traumhafte oder aber ganz unbewußte Seelenleben —, als auch dasjenige, was man unter der IchWirksamkeit — das ist das vollbewußte Seelenleben — versteht, alles das hat in gewisser Weise seinen physischen Träger, durch den es im physischen Leben wirkt. So daß wir sagen können: Wir müssen, wenn wir den Menschen betrachten, nicht bloß unseren Blick hinwenden auf dasjenige, was zum Beispiel die Ich-Tätigkeit, die eine rein geistige ist, ausmacht, sondern wir müssen auch unseren Blick werfen auf dasjenige, was im Organismus der eigentliche Träger dieser IchTätigkeit ist. Und da finden wir, daß der eigentliche Träger dieser Ich-Tätigkeit im wesentlichen im Blute verankert ist.

Es würde sehr weit führen, wenn ich — was durchaus sein könnte — Ihnen im einzelnen zeigen wollte, wie gerade durch die besondere Wirksamkeit des Blutes, durch das Zusammenwirken der Stoffwechseltätigkeit im Blute mit der rhythmischen Tätigkeit im Blute, das Ich mit dem übrigen Seelischen zusammenwirkt. Was uns aber jetzt in diesem Augenblicke mehr interessieren soll, das ist die Brücke vom Physiologisch-Pathologischen hinüber ins Therapeutische. Und da finden wir denn etwas außerordentlich Wichtiges. Wir können gewissermaßen das physische Gerüste, den physischen Träger eines Geistig-Seelischen, also sagen wir des vollbewußten Ich, so beeinflussen durch irgendwelche Prozesse, die wir in ihm verursachen, daß er sich gewissermaßen der Ich-Tätigkeit entzieht, daß er aber eine ähnliche Funktion ausführt, wie sonst nur unter dem Einflusse der Ich-Tätigkeit. Ich will einen besonderen Fall nach dieser Richtung hervorholen. Bitte denken Sie sich einmal — ich will jetzt schematisch zeichnen — durch das menschliche Blutsystem gewissermaßen gerüstförmig, in einem Kräftegerüste aufgebaut dasjenige, was als Ich-Tätigkeit wirkt. Die Ich-Tätigkeit selbst möchte ich dadurch bezeichnen, daß ich längs der Linie dieses Kräftegerüstes farbige Streifen zeichne, welche dann das Geistig-Seelische der Ich-Tätigkeit bilden (siehe Zeichnung, rot). Wenn man nun in einer gewissen Weise die der Ich-Tätigkeit zugrunde liegende Kräfteorganisation beeinflussen kann, so kann es sein, daß diese Kräfteorganisation sich gewissermaßen verselbständigt, sich herausreißt und als physische Wirksamkeit, als ein Gerüste von physischen Wirkungskräften sich heraussondert aus dem Geistig-Seelischen, aber dennoch gewissermaßen wie ein Abbild desjenigen, was die geistig-seelische Tätigkeit ist, doch bloß physisch wirkt. Man gliedert sich dann in gewisser Weise eine Art Doppelgänger ein, der im tief Unterbewußten drunten wirkt, der aber ähnlich wirkt, nur eben im Raume, das heißt nur physisch, wie er sonst wirkt, wenn er lediglich hingebungsvoll das Werkzeug für die Ich-Tätigkeit ist.

AltName

Man kann das hervorrufen — man braucht es nicht zu tun, man kann es in elementaren Fällen schon selbst, man kann immer den Punkt, den Goethe bezeichnet als denjenigen, hinter dem die Natur ihr offenbares Geheimnis enthüllt, schon finden, wenn man nur die entsprechenden Wege geht —, man kann dadurch, daß der Mensch zuviel Phosphor in sich bekommt, oder daß er mit einer starken Phosphordosis behandelt wird, diesen Zustand hervorrufen. Man kann gewissermaßen dasjenige, was im Leibe der Träger der IchTätigkeit ist, aus dieser Ich-Tätigkeit heraussondern, so daß im Leibe für sich diese Ich-Tätigkeit wie in einem Abbilde vollführt würde. Und was würde die Folge sein? Die Folge würde dann sein, daß gerade unter der Einwirkung der Phosphorkräfte die Blutstätigkeit ihr gewöhnliches Maß überwiegen würde, namentlich im Knochentrakte, und im Knochentrakte gewissermaßen eine Art Hyperämie eintreten würde. Auf diese Weise, durch diese Hyperämie würde dann dasjenige, was nun solch einer übertriebenen Blutgefäßtätigkeit vom Knochenknorpel benachbart ist, wuchern, und es würde dem Verkalkungsprozeß der Knochen entgegengewirkt werden.

Ich habe Ihnen geschildert, was eintreten könnte durch eine Behandlung des Menschen, innerhalb welcher er zuviel Phosphor bekommt, das heißt innerhalb welcher die Funktion, die der Phosphor im menschlichen Organismus vollziehen kann, zu stark ausgeführt wird. Aber diejenigen Kräfte, die draußen in der Welt sind, die in den einzelnen Mineralien verankert sind, sie sind gewissermaßen in einer anderen Form, sagen wir, in einer übersinnlichen Form im Menschen auch vorhanden, und sie können ja im Menschen tätig sein. Der Mensch ist in gewisser Beziehung ein Mikrokosmos. Wenn nun diese Kräfte, die sonst draußen in der Natur im Phosphor verankert sind, wenn diese Kräfte in der Menschenwesenheit wirken, was namentlich im frühen Lebensalter der Fall sein kann, dann entsteht die Erkrankung der Rachitis. Und wir haben dadurch, daß wir so den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der Weltumgebung durchschauen, die Erkenntnis dann zu gewinnen, daß Entstehung der Rachitis im menschlichen Organismus ein ähnlicher Prozeß ist wie derjenige, der sich in der Entstehung des Phosphors draußen in der Natur vollzieht. Ich deute Ihnen hier aphoristisch und selbstverständlich so, daß nicht alle Glieder einer Beweiskette zusammengeschlossen werden können, in einem bestimmten Falle an, welches eigentlich die Wegrichtung ist, durch die man geisteswissenschaftlich diesen Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der übrigen Welt sucht.

AltName

Nun kann man aber weitergehen. Ich habe Ihnen heute früh gezeigt, wie zusammenwirkt in einer Weise, die ich so angedeutet habe, daß ich das Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem auf der einen Seite, das Nerven-Sinnessystem auf der anderen Seite hatte und das ausgleichende rhythmische System dazu, diese beiden Systeme zusammenwirken (siehe Zeichnung). Sehen Sie, da ist es nun so, daß in der Tat dasjenige, was im Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem unregelmäßig, kränkend wirkt, gerade das Gesundmachende im Kopfsystem ist. Daher haben wir im Kopfsystem des Menschen immer gewisse Funktionen, die vom Phosphor herrühren, aber von einer sehr geringen Menge Phosphor, die sich im Gehirn des Menschen findet. Diese Phosphortätigkeit, man lernt sie auf der anderen Seite kennen in der Art, wie ich Ihnen das jetzt beschrieben habe, im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenorganismus als den richtigen Abbau in die Verkalkungsprozesse hinein hemmend. Aber sie müssen vorhanden sein, diese Phosphorprozesse im Gehirn, wo der Abbau vorhanden sein soll, und wo vor allen Dingen dieser Abbau fortwährend fortwirken soll. Mit anderen Worten: Weil wir im Gehirn den Phosphorprozeß anwesend haben, haben wir im Gehirn fortwährend, ich möchte sagen, einen naszierenden Zustand, haben wir eine Art Rachitisentstehung. Darauf beruht gerade unsere Gehirntätigkeit, daß fortwährend der Knochen gebildet sein will, aber fortwährend diese Knochenbildung verhindert wird, nachdem einmal die Schädeldecke ordentlich herumgebildet ist um dieses menschliche Gehirn. Wir haben im menschlichen Gehirn — das ergibt sich der menschlichen Anschauung — ein fortwährendes Hinstreben zur Knochenbildung. Aber diese Knochenbildung ist einmal abgeschlossen in einem bestimmten Lebensalter. Dann wird diese Knochenbildetätigkeit aufgehalten. Also wir haben wirklich hier ein Krankmachendes, das ausgeglichen wird von der anderen Seite, vom anderen Pol des Organismus her, wir haben ein fortwährendes Hinstreben zur Rachitis.

Nun ist das Merkwürdige, daß ein solcher Rhythmus, wie er hier sich im Menschen beobachten läßt, auch in der ganzen übrigen Natur, nur in gewisser Beziehung entgegengesetzt, wiederum vorhanden ist. Wenn wir auf die merkwürdige Bedeutung des Phosphors für das menschliche Gehirn hinblicken, so müssen wir uns ja sagen: Indem der Phosphor aufgenommen wird, wird er verarbeitet bis zum Haupte hinauf. Da macht er innerhalb des menschlichen Organismus selber Veränderungen durch. Er folgt jener Richtung, die die Wachstumsrichtung des Menschen ist. Er gliedert sich ein in diese Wachstumsrichtung des Menschen. Und dieses Eingliedern reduziert gewissermaßen seine Wirksamkeit auf ein Minimum, das verdünnt ihn, und in dieser Verdünnung wirkt er so, daß eben die aufgehaltene Rachitis des Kopfes Träger sein kann gerade derjenigen seelischgeistigen Prozesse, die durch Vermittlung des menschlichen Hauptes ausgeführt werden müssen.

Nun stellt sich das Eigentümliche heraus, wenn man sehr kleine Dosen Phosphor, statt etwas größerer, gewöhnlich wahrnehmbarer Dosen Phosphor, dem Menschen in der richtigen Weise beibringt, dann hat man gewissermaßen auch in den Funktionen des Phosphors schon etwas anderes erreicht. Bringt man diese kleinen Dosen dem menschlichen Organismus bei, so wirken diese kleinen Dosen nun im Menschen so, wie der Phosphor wirkt in dem menschlichen Gehirn. Sie wirken dort nun im übrigen Organismus als kleine Dosen aufhaltend den Rachitisprozeß, wenn er bei Kindern begonnen hat. Daher ist in diesem Falle der Phosphor in kleiner Menge, in kleinsten Dosen ein Heilmittel gegen die Rachitis, und in weitergehendem Sinne ist der Phosphor überhaupt ein Heilmittel gegen alles dasjenige, was das Ich-Gerüste, das physische Ich-Gerüste, das ich da (siehe Zeichnung Seite 57, weiß) unter dem Roten gezeichnet habe, das im Organismus durch Kranksein emanzipiert ist von der eigentlichen seelischen Tätigkeit, wiederum zurückbringt zur Seelentätigkeit, das heißt, es wiederum ins Normale hin umkehrt.

Ich mußte Ihnen eine sehr komplizierte Auseinandersetzung geben über das menschliche Wesen, damit Sie aus dem sehen, was eigentlich zugrunde liegt dem Streite zwischen Allopathen und Homöopathen. Auf gewissen Gebieten, kann man sagen, zeigt sich dasjenige, was in der Homöopathie zutage tritt, ganz eklatant, wie hier in diesem Falle, den ich Ihnen angedeutet habe. Mit gewissen kleinen Dosen von Phosphor oder auch von Schwefel, kurz, von etwas Verbrennlichem — ich komme darauf noch zurück -—, ist durchaus die Rachitis, sind überhaupt auch sonstige entzündliche Zustände zu heilen, die von einer, ich möchte sagen, von der Ich-Wesenheit emanzipierten Bluttätigkeit kommen.

Sie sehen, wenn man sich einläßt darauf, den Menschen so zu betrachten, wie Geisteswissenschaft einen anleitet, dann wird, wie in diesem Falle, der Zusammenhang des Menschen auch mit der äußeren unorganischen Natur durchsichtig. Und was ich hier angeführt habe, kann durchaus ausgedehnt werden auf andere unorganische Stoffe. Nur muß man ins Detail gehen. Und gerade diese Art, den Zusammenfluß von Pathologie, Physiologie und Therapie zu bewirken, erfordert ein hingebungsvolles Studium der innermenschlichen und der außermenschlichen Welt. Wir können den Phosphor, den Schwefel verbrennliche Stoffe nennen. Diese verbrennlichen Stoffe, sie stellen sich, wenn man nun wirklich die Betrachtung ausdehnt, als diejenigen heraus, die durchaus in ähnlicher Weise wirken, wie das eben vom Phosphor beschrieben worden ist. Sie wirken so, daß sie gewissermaßen das emanzipierte Ich-Gerüste wiederum hineinstellen in die Ich-Tätigkeit.

In umgekehrter Weise wirken gewisse Salze, dasjenige, was also nicht verbrennlich ist, sondern dasjenige, was sich im Wasser auflöst und bei der Erkaltung des Wassers wiederum abscheidet. Diese Salze, kohlensaure, andere Salze, wirken so, daß sie umgekehrt eine zu starke Verbindung des Geistig-Seelischen, namentlich der IchTätigkeit, mit dem Gerüste hervorrufen, also daß sie nicht das Gerüste ablösen, sondern daß sie gewissermaßen das Geistig-Seelische zu stark hineindrücken. Und sie können daher wiederum dann als Heilmittel angewendet werden, wenn durch irgend etwas diese Verbindung eine zu lose ist. So können wir sagen: Verstehen wir dasjenige, was eigentlich vorgeht durch irgendeinen Stoff, den wir in den Organismus hineinbringen, verstehen wir, wie er die ganze Organisation beeinflußt, dann verstehen wir, wie wir entgegenwirken können irgendeinem Prozeß, der abnorm verläuft und dem entgegengewirkt werden muß.

Insbesondere wirksam sind für gewisse Prozesse, wie zum Beispiel für jenen Prozeß, welcher der früher Lungenschwindsucht genannten Krankheit zugrunde liegt, gerade solche salzartige Körper, also lösliche Körper. Denn dasjenige, was Lungenschwindsucht ist, erfordert eben, daß man einem Prozesse entgegenwirkt, der im menschlichen Organismus der entgegengesetzte Prozeß ist desjenigen, der stattfindet, wenn in einer Lösung sich Salz eben auflöst. Und so handelt es sich darum, daß einen die Ausbreitung seiner Erkenntnisse über die ganze menschliche Wesenheit hineinführt in den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit seiner ganzen äußeren weltlichen Umgebung.

Dasjenige, was ich jetzt ausgeführt habe — ich kann nur immer beispielsweise sprechen in diesen ergänzenden aphoristischen Betrachtungen —, läßt sich noch durch andere Beispiele illustrieren. Nehmen wir irgendwoher, wir können, ich möchte sagen, ja überall solche Beispiele finden, aber nehmen wir einmal Beispiele aus einem Gebiete, das uns zu gleicher Zeit in den ganzen Zusammenhang des Geistig-Seelischen mit dem Physischen hineinführen kann. Dasjenige, was durch das Nerven-Sinnessystem vermittelt wird, das stellt sich ja im Menschenleben so dar, daß es vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen das bewußte Leben des Menschen bedeutet. So daß wir geradezu sagen können: Das Kopfsystem ist der Ausdruck für das bewußte Leben des Menschen. Aber das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem, das ist nicht in gleicher Weise der Ausdruck für das bewußte Leben des Menschen. Wir gehen sozusagen durch die Welt mit bewußtem Kopf, aber doch mit unbewußten Gliedern. Diese Glieder werden nur bewußt, wenn sie in irgendeiner Weise berührt werden, wenn sie einen Insult erleiden und dergleichen. So daß wir sagen können: Der normale Zustand für das Kopf-, für das Nerven-Sinnessystem ist im wachenden Zustand die Bewußtheit, für das entgegengesetzte System des Menschen die Unbewußtheit.

Aber man kann in einer gewissen Weise im Menschen künstlich eine Art Bewußtheit erzeugen für das andere, für das StoffwechselGliedmaßensystem. Und das geschieht zum Beispiel durch die Massage. Worinnen besteht denn die Massage? Sie besteht darinnen, daß man durch äußere Maßnahmen dasjenige bewußt macht, was sonst unbewußt bleibt. Es handelt sich dann darum, daß man verursachen kann, daß ein zu geringer Zusammenhang zwischen dem Geistig-Seelischen und dem Physischen durch diese Massage gebessert werden kann. Nehmen wir an, der Mensch wäre krankhaft so organisiert, daß er von seinem Geistig-Seelischen aus eine zu geringe Neigung hat, dieses Geistig-Seelische voll hineinzutreiben in sein Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem. Dann unterstützt man das Physische dieses Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystems, indem man es massiert, indem man es also bis zu einem gewissen Grade von dem Zustande des Geistigen in den Zustand der Bewußtheit herauferhebt, man unterstützt dieses System in seiner Wirksamkeit, und dadurch ruft man ein stärkeres Durchströmtsein dieses Systems mit dem Geistig-Seelischen herbei. Und versteht man dann, wie dieses Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem wirkt, weiß man zum Beispiel, daß dasjenige, was in den Armen und Händen pulsiert, was da als GeistigSeelisches pulsiert, daß das sich innerlich fortsetzt und den innerlichen Stoffwechsel des Menschen beherrscht, dann wird man auch wissen, was es bedeutet, partielle Bewußtheit herbeizuführen durch Massage in den Armen und Händen. Es bedeutet das eine Förderung des Geistig-Seelischen im Stoffwechselsystem, aber in demjenigen Stoffwechselsystem, das im Menschen nach innen hinein aufbauend, Verdauung bewirkend, den Stoff aufnehmend, die Verdauung in der Weise bewirkt, daß sie stoffaufnehmend wirkt.

So kann man sagen: Findet man, daß der Mensch innerlich organisch an Stoffwechselstörungen leidet, an Stoffwechselstörungen aber, die sich etwa darauf beziehen, daß seine Nahrung nicht ordentlich in den Körper sich einfügt, oder daß die Verarbeitung dieser Nahrung in dem Aufbauprozesse sich nicht ordentlich vollzieht, kurz, daß der nach innen gehende Stoffwechsel nicht in Ordnung ist, dann kann in gewissen Fällen — man muß natürlich jetzt Detailkenntnisse haben, um das in der richtigen Weise zu sehen — die Arm- und Händemassage eine Hilfe sein. Sie beruht darauf, daß man das Geistig-Seelische durch den Grad von Bewußtheit, den man durch die Massage hervorbringt, in seiner Wirksamkeit unterstützt. Massiert man Beine und Füße, dann wird etwas anderes eintreten. Dasjenige, was als Geistig-Seelisches Beine und Füße durchdringt, das steht wiederum in einem Zusammenhange organisch mit Ausscheidungsprozessen, mit Abbauprozessen. Daher wird man, wenn die Verdauung nach der Richtung nicht in Ordnung ist, daß die Ausscheidungsprozesse nicht in der richtigen Weise sich vollziehen, mit einer Massage unter Umständen an Beinen und Füßen etwas helfen können.

Aber Sie sehen, wenn man in dieser Weise geisteswissenschaftlich durchleuchtet das medizinische Wesen, dann vollbringt man solche Dinge nicht nur ganz zufällig empirisch, wenn sie sich gerade der Empirie darbieten, sondern man kann ganz bewußt auf eine Bearbeitung des Zusammenhanges zwischen Physiologie, Pathologie und Therapie auf den verschiedensten Gebieten eben hinarbeiten. Ich möchte Ihnen, wie gesagt, diese Dinge sagen, nur um zu beleuchten die Richtungen, nach denen man gehen muß. Und ich weiß ganz gut, wieviel gerade an solchen Dingen frappiert, weil ja natürlich nicht alle Einzelheiten herbeigetragen werden können.

Nimmt man zum Beispiel eine Erkrankung, die auch dem Mediziner sehr viel Sorge machen kann, sagen wir zum Beispiel die Zuckerharnruhr, den Diabetes mellitus, dann müssen wir wiederum hinblicken auf den Zusammenhang des Geistig-Seelischen, und zwar des bewußten Geistig-Seelischen, des Ich-durchzogenen GeistigSeelischen und des physischen Trägers dieser Ich-Tätigkeit. Nur kommt jetzt etwas anderes zustande als in dem heute zuerst erwähnten Fall. Nehmen wir an, diese Ich-Tätigkeit wird eine zu große im menschlichen Organismus. Sie dehnt sich über ihr Maß aus. Dann können solche abnorme Ausscheidungsprozesse stattfinden, wie sie stattfinden bei dem Diabetiker. Da haben wir es also zu tun gewissermaßen mit einer übertriebenen Ich-Tätigkeit im Organischen selber. Da haben wir es mit einem zu tiefen Sichhineinsenken des Ich in das Organische zu tun, so daß durch dieses tiefe Einsenken eben dasjenige herausgetrieben wird, was gerade bei dem Diabetiker erscheint.

Nun können wir wiederum den Blick ablenken von dem, was da im Innern des Menschen vorgeht, und ihn hinlenken zu dem, was in der menschlichen Außenwelt vorgeht. Da haben wir in der Außenwelt Pflanzen, von denen wir ja heute morgen schon erkannt haben, wie sie in einer gewissen Weise von unten nach oben einen Prozeß entwickeln, den der Mensch von oben nach unten entwickelt. In der Tat verläuft dasjenige, was, ich möchte sagen, als hypertrophe Ich-Tätigkeit in den Organismus hineinarbeitet bei dem Diabetes, entgegen der Richtung des Pflanzenwachstums. Wenn wir dann gerade die richtige Funktion bei der wachsenden Pflanze auffinden, dann können wir unter Umständen ein Verhältnis herstellen zwischen dem, was gerade beim Diabetiker nach unten wirkt und was bei der Pflanze nach oben wirkt. Wir müssen nur die Pflanze so auffassen, daß wir uns sagen: Die Pflanze ist ein Wesen, physisch ist sie auch; sie wächst, sie pflanzt sich fort, also hat sie einen ätherischen Leib. Sie hat auch einen ätherischen Leib für die geisteswissenschaftliche Anschauung. Aber sie bringt es nicht bis zur inneren seelischen Beweglichkeit; sie hat also kein Astralisches, sie hat auch keine Ich-Tätigkeit. Aber sie wächst doch der Ich-Tätigkeit, der astralischen Tätigkeit entgegen. Dasselbe, was die Pflanze nach oben entfaltet, entfaltet der Mensch von oben nach unten.

Wenn wir nun zu beobachten vermögen, was da eigentlich in der Pflanze vorgeht, indem sie derjenigen Richtung entgegenwächst, in der der Mensch gerade nun entgegengesetzt, von oben nach unten sein Ich ausbildet, so finden wir, wie dasjenige im Pflanzlichen entsteht, was nun eine innere Beziehung haben kann gerade zu dieser inneren Ich-Tätigkeit dadurch, daß es auch mit der Verbrennlichkeit etwas zu tun hat. Ich habe früher auf verbrennliche Körper aufmerksam gemacht. Jetzt sehen wir verbrennliche, flüchtige, dem Verbrennlichen nahe Körperlichkeit sich herausbilden aus der Pflanze in den ätherischen Olen. Wenn wir die ätherischen Ole in gewissen Pflanzen entstehen sehen, dann ergibt sich nun für eine solche Betrachtung, wie ich sie eben angedeutet habe, daß das die entgegengesetzte Tätigkeit ist derjenigen gegenüber, welche zum Beispiel die hineingepreßte, in den menschlichen Organismus hineingepreßte Ich-Tätigkeit ausübt, wodurch der Mensch Diabetiker wird. Und man kann dann, wenn man nur in der richtigen Weise dasjenige, was man in der Außenwelt als das Entgegengesetzte hat, an den Menschen heranbringt, man kann der Zuckerharnruhr entgegenarbeiten.

Man muß es so machen, daß man allerdings in diesem Falle wirklich entgegenwirkt, das heißt, daß man zum Beispiel in Bäder die ätherischen Öle oder auch die Pflanzen selber, die ätherisches Ol entwickeln, bringt, und den Menschen in solchen Bädern eben baden läßt. Dadurch wirken diese Kräfte, die die Pflanze entfaltet in den ätherischen Olen, von außen nach innen entgegen den Kräften, welche die Zuckerharnruhr bewirken. Wir können auf diese Weise gerade durch solche Bäder dem Menschen helfen.

Ich führe eben nur einzelne Beispiele aus der reichen Fülle an, die vorgebracht werden können, von denen ich eine große Anzahl im heurigen Frühjahr für Fachärzte vorgebracht habe. Ich führe es hier nur an in bezug auf Prinzipielles, aber Sie können daraus sehen, wie das medizinische Wesen allmählich rationell gemacht wird, so daß exemplifiziert wird, daß man wirklich den Prozeß im Innern des Menschen sieht, und den Prozeß in der äußeren Natur sieht, und sieht, wie sich diese beiden Prozesse entweder unterstützen, tragen oder entgegenwirken, wie also ein Prozeß, der im menschlichen Organismus ist, aufgehalten werden kann und wie nach der Heilung hingestrebt werden kann. Wir kommen, wenn wir eine solche Betrachtungsweise ausdehnen, ich möchte sagen, in der Erkenntnis des physischen Menschen und seiner Zusammenhänge mit dem geistigseelischen Menschen immer weiter. Sie wissen ja, daß in der modernen medizinischen naturwissenschaftlichen Anschauung eine große Rolle das Vererbungsproblem spielt. Allein dieses Vererbungsproblem wird durchwegs in einer sehr abstrakten und äußerlichen Weise behandelt. Es kann eben durch die äußere Wissenschaft nur wenig in Zusammenhang gebracht werden mit dem, was im Menschenwesen eigentlich wirkt. Denn der Mensch ist ja tatsächlich — und jetzt möchte ich etwas vor Sie hinstellen, was aus einer reichen anthroposophischen Forschung heraus gewonnen werden muß, was ich aber als ein Ergebnis hinstellen möchte — aus der ganzen übrigen Welt, die zu ihm gehört als irdische Welt und auch als außerirdische Welt, herausgebildet. Und er ist in einer verschiedenen Weise herausgebildet.

Wir finden zum Beispiel, daß der weibliche Organismus so herausgebildet ist, sagen wir, aus der Natur oder aus dem Kosmos, daß beim weiblichen Organismus mehr diejenigen Kräfte vorkommen, welche gewissermaßen weniger an die Kräfte der Erde gebunden sind. Beim weiblichen Organismus ist etwas stark Außerirdisches vorhanden. Beim männlichen Organismus sind vorzugsweise diejenigen Kräfte entwickelt, die nun mit dem irdischen Leben zusammenhängen. Das kommt im gewöhnlichen Leben sonst nicht so stark in Betracht, aber es kommt in Betracht bei dem, was Fortpflanzung ist. Da handelt es sich darum, daß diejenigen Kräfte, die im weiblichen Organismus wirken und zur Fortpflanzung beitragen, tatsächlich die Übertragung desjenigen sind, was als Außerirdisches sich in die gesamte menschliche Wesenheit einorganisiert. Dasjenige aber, was den Menschen herunterholt in die irdische Welt hinein, ist vorzugsweise im männlichen Organismus organisiert. Und nun betrachten wir dasjenige am Menschen, was eigentlich durch diese seine Erdenumgebung in ihm ist. Das Auffälligste, was in ihm ist durch seine Erdenumgebung, ist ja die Ich-Tätigkeit. Diese IchTätigkeit, sie gibt ja geradezu der Erdenentwickelung des Menschen ihren vollen Sinn. Wir müssen uns von anderen Welten in die Erdenwelt hereinentwickeln, um die Ich-Tätigkeit in unserem Geistig-Seelischen voll ausbilden zu können. Diese Ich-Tätigkeit, ich habe sie Ihnen aufgewiesen, wie sie gebunden ist an das Kräftegerüste, das durch das Blut vermittelt ist. So müßten wir also sagen: Dasjenige, was vorzugsweise dem Blute einorganisiert wird, was vorzugsweise nach der Ich-Tätigkeit hin wirkt, das wird auf dem Wege der Fortpflanzung von der männlichen Persönlichkeit her bewirkt; dasjenige, was mehr das Außerirdische im Menschen organisiert, was erst von der Ich-Tätigkeit durchzogen werden muß, das kommt mehr von der weiblichen Seite her.

Nun finden wir also in dieser Weise zusammenwirken Männliches und Weibliches in der Fortpflanzung, und wir können dadurch erst richtige Begriffe von der Vererbung gewinnen, wenn wir dieses einsehen. Nun wird zunächst berührt von dem männlichen Einfluß der weibliche Same, der weibliche Keim. Und dieser weibliche Keim hat eine gewisse Selbständigkeit im weiblichen Organismus. Wir müssen sagen, wenn wir einen ausgewachsenen weiblichen Organismus vor uns haben, wirkt dieses Außerirdische vorzugsweise im übrigen weiblichen Organismus. In demjenigen Teile des weiblichen Organismus, der zur Keimbildung die Veranlassung gibt, wirkt das nicht mit, wirkt insbesondere nicht mit nach der Konzeption. So daß gerade der weibliche Keim, der durch die Konzeption gegangen ist, eine gewisse Selbständigkeit hat, also dasjenige, was er als Vermittler der Ich-Tätigkeit bedeutet, in bezug auf den Nachkommen in einer gewissen Weise selbständig überträgt. Wenn man diese Dinge weiß, dann kann man sie so anwenden, daß Erscheinungen in der Außenwelt einem entgegenkommen wie illustrierend dasjenige, was man zuerst im geistigen Schauen gewonnen hat. Man gewinnt im geistigen Schauen die Erkenntnis, daß in der Tat im weiblichen Organismus ein Außerirdisches verankert ist, daß das Irdische, das also gerade an der Bluttätigkeit haftet, durch den männlichen Organismus vermittelt wird, daß durch diese Vermittlung der weibliche Eikeim eine gewisse Selbständigkeit erlangt, gewissermaßen abgesondert vom übrigen außerirdischen weiblichen Organismus sich durch die Befruchtung entwickelt.

Solch einen Vorgang, den man geistig-seelisch erkennt, hat man dann im Hintergrunde, wenn man eine so merkwürdige Erscheinung wie die der Hämophilen, der Bluter, erklären will. Da tritt ja die merkwürdige Tatsache zutage, daß es Menschen gibt, welche an einer mangelnden Gerinnung des Blutes so leiden, daß sie bei der geringsten Körperverletzung, oftmals ohne daß eine solche nachweisbar ist, reichlich Blut absondern, dadurch zum Verbluten neigen. Diese Bluterkrankheit, sie hat etwas höchst Eigentümliches an sich: Aus Bluterfamilien stammende Männer bekommen die Blutungen nicht, wenn sie geboren werden von Frauen, die von Nichtbluterfamilien herstammen, sie bekommen sie dann als Männer nicht, diese Bluterkrankheit, aber wenn Frauen Nachkommenschaft bekommen, die aus Bluterfamilien stammen, dann bekommen sie selber nicht durch Vererbung die Bluterkrankheit; dagegen bekommen die von ihnen abstammenden Männer die Bluterkrankheit. Das heißt, die Bluterkrankheit geht durch die Frau durch. Das weist uns hin auf jene Selbständigkeit des Keimes, von der ich eben gesprochen habe. Und es deutet uns die äußere Erscheinung gewissermaßen illustrierend auf dasjenige hin, was wir durch Geistesschau gewinnen.

Nun, ich habe Ihnen heute gewissermaßen nur erzählend einiges vorgeführt, was in der folgenden Richtung verläuft. Ich habe Ihnen gezeigt, wie man auf der einen Seite durch Geistesschau hineinblicken kann in das Wesen des Menschen, in das konkrete Wesen des Menschen, in seine Aufbau- und Abbauprozesse, in seine Gesundungs- und Erkrankungsprozesse, die eigentlich in ständiger Wechselwirkung stehen, und zwischen denen ein Ausgleich gesucht werden muß. Ich habe Ihnen gezeigt, wie man durch Geistesschau das Wechselverhältnis des Menschen mit seiner Umgebung finden kann, wie man dadurch die Brücke schlagen kann von Physiologie und Pathologie zu der Therapie. Und ich habe Ihnen zuletzt an einem besonderen Beispiel veranschaulichen wollen, wie man — ich habe einen extremen Fall gewählt, den der Bluterkrankheit und den der Vererbungsverhältnisse bei der Bluterkrankheit —, wenn man in der richtigen Weise die Natur ansieht in den Fällen, wo die Natur ihr offenbares Geheimnis enthüllt, überall die Illustration desjenigen bekommt, was man erst geisteswissenschaftlich erkannt hat. So daß es den Einwand gar nicht gibt, der etwa so lautete, daß derjenige, der doch nicht hineinschauen könne in die geistige Welt, daß der gar keinen Weg habe, um irgendwelche Beweise für dasjenige zu finden, was der Geisteswissenschafter behauptet. Nein, so liegt die Sache nicht, sondern es handelt sich darum, daß man ja die geisteswissenschaftlichen Resultate, ich möchte sagen, auf der einen Seite ohne Dogmatismus und Autoritätsglauben aufnehmen kann, und auf der anderen Seite sie aber auch ohne vorgefaßten, vorurteilsvollen Skeptizismus aufnehmen kann. Man nimmt sie einfach auf. Man sagt sich zunächst nicht: Ich glaube sie — man lehnt sie aber auch nicht leichtsinnig ab, man nimmt sie und prüft sie an der äußeren Wirklichkeit.

Sie werden sehen, wenn Sie dasjenige, was Ihnen zunächst paradox, oftmals sogar phantastisch erscheint, indem es heruntergeholt wird aus der geistigen Welt durch übersinnliches Schauen in der Geistesforschung, wenn Sie es im Leben anwenden, wenn Sie das Leben fragen, daß es bestätigt wird an den Punkten, worauf es ankommt. Sie werden finden, überall liefert die Empirie die Bestätigungen für dasjenige, was die Geistesforschung findet. Diejenigen Menschen, die heute unter der Ausrede, daß sie ja nicht in die geistige Welt schauen können, die Erkenntnisse dieser geistigen Welt ablehnen, gleichen jenem Menschen, der ein so geformtes Eisen (es wird gezeichnet) sieht und sagt: Damit beschlage ich mein Pferd, das ist ein Hufeisen. — Der andere aber, der sagt ihm: Es ist schade, damit das Pferd zu beschlagen, denn das hat magnetische Kräfte in sich, das ist ein Magnet —, und wenn ihm erwidert wird: Ich sehe nichts von magnetischer Kraft, für mich ist das ein Hufeisen.

Ja, die Sache liegt so, daß in allem Materiellen das Geistige ist, daß wir jetzt in dem Zeitalter leben, wo dieses Geistige gesucht werden muß. Derjenige, der, in der Materie forschend, fragen will, ohne den Geist zu suchen, der gleicht demjenigen, der ein Hufeisen, einen Magneten zum Pferdebeschlagen gebraucht, der also nicht weiß, wie eigentlich die Dinge gerade in der materiellen Welt anzuwenden sind. So lückenhaft aphoristisch dasjenige sein mußte, was ich Ihnen heute nur ergänzend zu dem Vortrage sagen konnte, es sollte ja auch nur die Richtung zeigen, in welcher in Zukunft gerade das medizinische Studienwesen verlaufen muß. Denn dieses medizinische Studienwesen hängt so innig zusammen mit dem sozialen Wesen. Geradeso, wie die Menschenwelt sozial nur gesunden kann, wenn in das soziale Urteil die geistige Erkenntnis hineingetragen wird, so kann eigentlich unsere Medizin nur gesunden, wenn in sie hineingetragen wird das geistige Schauen.

Sie sehen, Phantasten sind wir auf keinem Gebiete. Dilettanten wollen wir wenigstens auf keinem Gebiete sein. Es handelt sich um ernstes Forschen, nur eben um ein Forschen, welches jenen Grundsatz entwickelt hat, der heute vielfach angewendet wird. Wenn heute da oder dort eine Hypothese ausgehängt wird, dann sagt man, sie bedeutet eine bequeme Handhabe, um die Erscheinungen zu überschauen. Man kommt ja auch schon dazu, in der Mathematik sogar solche Hypothesen oder Gedankenrichtungen auszuhecken. Geisteswissenschaft steht auf dem Boden, daß nichts gescheut werden darf, um alles dasjenige, was für den Fortschritt des Menschenlebens notwendig ist zu erreichen, daß nichts gescheut werden darf an Aufwendung von Kräften in der Richtung dieser Notwendigkeit. Und deutlich vernimmt man heute aus dem Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung die Zeichen der Zeit, welche uns sagen: In den alten Richtlinien ist nicht mehr vorwärtszukommen.

Nun wohl, dieses Dornach ist nur aus dem Grunde entstanden, weil in den alten Richtlinien nicht mehr vorwärtszukommen ist, und es soll hier dasjenige gesucht werden, was die neuen Richtlinien sind. Spezialisiert haben wir uns genug. Jetzt handelt es sich darum, daß wir die einzelnen Spezialitäten wiederum zusammenbringen. Vielleicht werden Sie gerade an diesem Kurs sehen, wie aus einem Zentrum heraus die geistigen Kräfte fließen sollen, die diese einzelnen Spezialitäten zusammenbringen. Dazu müssen allerdings jene bequemen Wege verlassen werden, die man heute so vielfach sucht. Aber die Früchte werden vor allen Dingen in der Richtung des Fortschrittes der Menschheit liegen. Gerade aus diesem Grunde hätte ich daher vor allen Dingen gern gehabt, wenn wirklich alles dasjenige, was hier geisteswissenschaftlich gesagt werden kann, auch von Spezialisten gesagt worden wäre. Und es war mir daher gar nicht recht, daß ich selber gerade für ein wichtigstes Gebiet, für das medizinische Gebiet, vor Ihnen hier eintreten mußte. Aber da die Dinge nun einmal so gekommen sind, blieb eben nichts anderes übrig, und Sie müssen damit vorlieb nehmen. Dasjenige aber, worauf es unter allen Umständen angekommen wäre, ob nun ein Spezialist oder ein allgemeiner Betrachter hier das Nötige vorgebracht hätte, wäre eben dasjenige gewesen, zu zeigen, daß auch auf diesem schwierigen Gebiete der Medizin ein Fortschritt nur durch die Befruchtung von der Geistesforschung heraus möglich ist. Es würde sich, ich möchte sagen, recht anschaulich gezeigt haben, wenn auch für dieses Gebiet jemand aufgetreten wäre, der aus den Traditionen der Zeit heraus, aus alledem, was die Zeit selbst den Medizinern liefern konnte, auf der anderen Seite durch einen offenen Sinn für die Geisteswissenschaft hätte zeigen können: Man kann zu gleicher Zeit auf der vollen Höhe der heutigen medizinischen Wissenschaft, der offiziellen medizinischen Wissenschaft stehen und doch ein so guter Geisteswissenschafter sein, daß man nur glauben kann, man könne sogar diese Medizin heute nur ertragen, wenn man sie geisteswissenschaftlich durchleuchten kann. Ob Ihnen das hervorgehen konnte in einer genügend intensiven Weise dadurch, daß schon einmal die Tatsache sich herausstellte, daß ich den Fachmediziner ersetzen mußte, das weiß ich nicht. Aber ich hoffe, daß noch öfter Gelegenheit ist, in einer solchen Weise, wie es auch der Zeit einleuchtet durch die äußeren Umstände, zu zeigen: Auch die Medizin kann nur in die Zukunft hineingeführt werden, wenn der Geist in sie eindringt, wie er gemeint ist, wie er wenigstens angestrebt wird hier in diesem Goetheanum, wenn Goethescher Geist in die Medizin einzieht.

Fourth Lecture

This evening, I would like to add a few points to the lectures I have been forced to give here over the last few days. I would like to make a few aphoristic remarks that may shed some light on the principles that can serve to enrich medical and therapeutic studies through spiritual science. For the reasons I already indicated this morning, it will of course not be possible to go into great detail, not so much because of the brevity of time — which is also natural — but above all because detailed knowledge must nevertheless be reserved for a proper professional discussion, again for the reasons I already mentioned this morning. However, I would like to contribute something in this direction that may lead to a general understanding of the nature of medicine, so that a kind of social effect may emerge from this part of spiritual-scientific medical consideration, namely the establishment of a certain trust between the public and the medical profession. The better the understanding of the nature of medicine, the better it will be able to work.

This morning I drew your attention to how the life of the human organism actually consists of the nervous-sensory system, in short, the head system, and the limb-metabolic system working in completely opposite ways, which are then balanced by the rhythmic system. In a sense, everything that constitutes the breakdown processes, the absolutely necessary breakdown processes of the nerve-sense system, is constantly brought into harmony and exchange with what constitutes the build-up processes of the limb-metabolic system. You can imagine — and this can be proven in detail — that the two systems of the human organism therefore work in completely opposite directions, that they also interact in such a way that what happens in the individual, for example in the limb metabolism system, should not be overly impaired by the fact that, in a sense, by disregarding the rhythmic system, the activity that is actually only suitable for the head system affects the limb metabolic system. And once you have sufficiently understood what this is all about, you will also understand how such encroachments of one system on the other can occur, how, in other words, the head system, the nerve-sense system — in which metabolic processes must also take place, as I have explained to you — can also be overgrown by such metabolic processes, so that, in a sense, these metabolic processes functionally resemble the limb metabolic system within the head system. And the reverse can also occur. Because the same functional system is also at work in the limb metabolic system, albeit in a subordinate manner in normal life, it can sometimes spill over, so to speak, gaining too much intensity in the metabolic limb system, an activity that should only reach a certain level there and has its real significance in the head.

In other words, the nerve-sense activity, which is also present in the limb-metabolic system, can become predominant in the lower abdomen, for example, due to the strong influence of the head activity, or rather, it can become too intense. Then what normally takes place as a breakdown process only in the nervous-sensory system will take place in the organs of the lower abdomen. It will naturally take on a different form in the abdominal system, but it will, I would say, wreak havoc there. In fact, when we look into the organization of the human being in the way I have just described, we can recognize the development of a serious human disease, namely typhoid fever. Typhoid fever can certainly be observed empirically in terms of its appearance, but it can only be understood and placed within the whole human organization if one sees through the human being in this way, I would say, from the standpoint of rational medicine — to use Goethe's term. This morning I also showed you how one can move from the physiological-pathological to the therapeutic by trying to see through not only what is going on in the human being, but also what is going on in the external world. Processes take place in external nature which, if understood in the right way, can be introduced into the human organism by transferring the corresponding substances, and there, because in a certain way the external nature, let us say, the plant nature, through its upward striving, works in the opposite sense to the downward striving of the human being, there are certain processes that play incorrectly between the three systems of the human organism.

It is interesting to observe how what I have described to you this morning about the plant world and its connection with human beings can also be understood in relation to the mineral world. However, in order to understand the mineral world, we must draw on certain anthroposophical insights into human beings.

The spiritual-soul, the etheric, and the physical work within the human being. This spiritual-soul works in such a way — as you have been able to recognize through the discussion in these lectures — that it can be permeated by full ego consciousness. Then the human being is, so to speak, in his normal organization. Or the ego consciousness can also be somehow paralyzed, receding. When the spiritual-soul then stirs in some way, going its own way without being properly permeated by the ego, then the various areas of so-called mental illness arise. But everything that is spiritual-soul in the human being, both I would say, what is understood in anthroposophical terms as the astral — that is, the more subconscious, dreamlike, or even completely unconscious life of the soul — as well as what is understood as the activity of the ego — that is, the fully conscious life of the soul — all of this has, in a certain sense, its physical carrier through which it works in physical life. So we can say that when we look at human beings, we must not only turn our gaze to what constitutes, for example, ego activity, which is purely spiritual, but we must also turn our gaze to what is the actual carrier of this ego activity in the organism. And there we find that the actual carrier of this ego activity is essentially anchored in the blood.

It would take us very far afield if I wanted to show you in detail — which I could certainly do — how the ego interacts with the rest of the soul precisely through the special effectiveness of the blood, through the interaction of the metabolic activity in the blood with the rhythmic activity in the blood. But what should interest us more at this moment is the bridge from the physiological-pathological to the therapeutic. And here we find something extremely important. We can, so to speak, influence the physical framework, the physical carrier of a spiritual-soul entity, that is, let us say, the fully conscious ego, through certain processes that we cause within it, so that it withdraws, as it were, from ego activity, but performs a function similar to that which it would otherwise perform only under the influence of ego activity. I want to highlight a special case in this regard. Please imagine — I will now draw a diagram — that what functions as ego activity is built up in the human blood system in a kind of framework, in a framework of forces. I would like to represent ego activity itself by drawing colored stripes along the line of this framework of forces, which then form the spiritual-soul aspect of ego activity (see drawing, red). If one can influence the organization of forces underlying ego activity in a certain way, it may be that this organization of forces becomes independent, so to speak, breaks away and separates itself from the spiritual-soul aspect as a physical activity, as a framework of physical forces, but nevertheless acts purely physically, as it were, as a reflection of what spiritual-soul activity is. One then acquires, in a certain sense, a kind of double, which works deep down in the subconscious, but which has a similar effect, only in space, that is, only physically, as it otherwise does when it is merely the devoted tool for ego activity.

AltName

One can bring this about — one does not need to do so, one can do it oneself in elementary cases, one can always find the point that Goethe describes as the one behind which nature reveals its apparent secret, if one only follows the appropriate paths — one can bring about this state by giving the person too much phosphorus, or by treating them with a strong dose of phosphorus. In a sense, one can separate that which is the bearer of ego activity in the body from this ego activity, so that this ego activity would be carried out in the body as if in a mirror image. And what would be the result? The consequence would be that, under the influence of the phosphorus forces, blood activity would exceed its normal level, particularly in the bone tract, and a kind of hyperemia would occur in the bone tract. In this way, through this hyperemia, that which is now adjacent to such exaggerated blood vessel activity in the bone cartilage would proliferate, and the calcification process of the bones would be counteracted.

I have described to you what could happen as a result of treating a person who is receiving too much phosphorus, that is, within which the function that phosphorus can perform in the human organism is carried out too strongly. But the forces that are out there in the world, anchored in the individual minerals, are also present in humans in a different form, let's say in a supersensible form, and they can indeed be active in humans. In a certain sense, the human being is a microcosm. When these forces, which are otherwise anchored in phosphorus in nature, act within the human being, which can be the case especially in early childhood, then the disease of rickets develops. And by seeing through the connection between human beings and the world around them, we can then gain the insight that the development of rickets in the human organism is a process similar to that which takes place in the development of phosphorus outside in nature. I am suggesting to you here, aphoristically and of course in such a way that not all the links in a chain of evidence can be joined together, in a specific case, what is actually the direction in which one seeks, through spiritual science, this connection between the human being and the rest of the world.

AltName

But now we can go further. This morning I showed you how the limb metabolism system on the one hand, the nerve-sense system on the other, and the balancing rhythmic system interact in the way I indicated (see drawing). You see, it is indeed the case that what has an irregular, harmful effect in the limb metabolism system is precisely what promotes health in the head system. That is why we always have certain functions in the human head system that originate from phosphorus, but from a very small amount of phosphorus found in the human brain. This phosphorus activity, as I have now described to you, is known on the other hand in the metabolism-limb organism as inhibiting the correct breakdown into calcification processes. But these phosphorus processes must be present in the brain, where the breakdown is to take place and where, above all, this breakdown is to continue to have an effect. In other words, because we have the phosphorus process present in the brain, we have, I would say, a nascent state in the brain, a kind of rickets development. Our brain activity is based precisely on the fact that bones want to be formed continuously, but this bone formation is continuously prevented once the skull has been properly formed around the human brain. In the human brain, we have—according to human perception—a constant striving for bone formation. But this bone formation is completed at a certain age. Then this bone-forming activity is stopped. So we really have here something that causes illness, which is balanced by the other side, by the other pole of the organism; we have a constant striving toward rickets.

Now the strange thing is that such a rhythm, as can be observed here in humans, is also present in the rest of nature, only in a certain opposite relationship. When we consider the remarkable significance of phosphorus for the human brain, we must say to ourselves: when phosphorus is absorbed, it is processed all the way up to the head. There it undergoes changes within the human organism itself. It follows the direction of human growth. It integrates itself into this direction of human growth. And this integration reduces its effectiveness to a minimum, so to speak, diluting it, and in this dilution it acts in such a way that the delayed rickets of the head can be the carrier of precisely those soul and spirit processes that must be carried out through the mediation of the human head.

Now the peculiar thing is that when very small doses of phosphorus, instead of somewhat larger, usually perceptible doses of phosphorus, are administered to humans in the right way, then, in a sense, something else has already been achieved in the functions of phosphorus. If these small doses are administered to the human organism, they have the same effect in humans as phosphorus has in the human brain. They act in the rest of the organism as small doses that halt the process of rickets once it has begun in children. In this case, therefore, phosphorus in small quantities, in very small doses, is a remedy for rickets, and in a broader sense, phosphorus is a remedy for everything that the ego framework, the physical ego framework, which I have drawn there (see drawing on page 57, white) under the red, which in the organism is emancipated from the actual soul activity through illness, brings back to soul activity, that is, it returns it to normal.

I had to give you a very complicated explanation of the human being so that you could see what actually underlies the dispute between allopaths and homeopaths. In certain areas, one might say, what comes to light in homeopathy is quite striking, as in this case, which I have indicated to you. With certain small doses of phosphorus or sulfur, in short, of something combustible — I will come back to this later — it is entirely possible to cure rickets and other inflammatory conditions that arise from, I would say, blood activity emancipated from the ego.

You see, if one allows oneself to view human beings in the way that spiritual science instructs us to, then, as in this case, the connection between human beings and external inorganic nature becomes transparent. And what I have mentioned here can certainly be extended to other inorganic substances. But one must go into detail. And it is precisely this way of bringing together pathology, physiology, and therapy that requires a devoted study of the inner human and outer human worlds. We can call phosphorus and sulfur combustible substances. These combustible substances, when we really expand our consideration, turn out to be those that act in a similar way to what has just been described for phosphorus. They act in such a way that they, as it were, put the emancipated ego framework back into ego activity.

Certain salts, which are not combustible but dissolve in water and precipitate again when the water cools, have the opposite effect. These salts, carbonic acid and other salts, have the effect of causing an excessive connection between the spiritual-soul, namely the ego activity, and the framework, so that they do not detach the framework, but rather press the spiritual-soul too strongly into it, so to speak. And they can therefore be used as remedies when this connection is too loose due to some cause. So we can say: if we understand what is actually happening through some substance that we introduce into the organism, if we understand how it influences the whole organization, then we understand how we can counteract any process that is abnormal and needs to be counteracted.

Particularly effective for certain processes, such as the process underlying the disease formerly known as pulmonary tuberculosis, are precisely such salt-like substances, i.e., soluble substances. For what tuberculosis is requires that we counteract a process in the human organism that is the opposite of what happens when salt dissolves in a solution. And so it is that the spread of one's knowledge throughout the whole human being leads one into the connection between the human being and his entire external worldly environment.

What I have now explained — I can only ever speak in examples in these supplementary aphoristic considerations — can be illustrated by other examples. Let us take examples from somewhere; we can, I would say, find such examples everywhere, but let us take examples from a field that can at the same time lead us into the whole context of the spiritual-soul with the physical. What is conveyed by the nervous-sensory system is represented in human life in such a way that it signifies the conscious life of the human being from waking up to falling asleep. So that we can say outright: the head system is the expression of the conscious life of the human being. But the metabolic-limb system is not in the same way the expression of the conscious life of the human being. We go through the world, so to speak, with a conscious head, but with unconscious limbs. These limbs only become conscious when they are touched in some way, when they suffer an insult, and the like. So we can say that the normal state for the head, for the nervous sensory system, is consciousness in the waking state, and for the opposite system of the human being, unconsciousness.

But in a certain way, it is possible to artificially create a kind of consciousness in the human being for the other, for the metabolic-limb system. And this happens, for example, through massage. What does massage consist of? It consists of making conscious through external measures that which otherwise remains unconscious. The aim is to use massage to improve a connection between the spiritual-soul and the physical that is too weak. Let us assume that a person is pathologically organized in such a way that they have too little inclination to drive their spiritual-soul fully into their metabolic-limb system. Then one supports the physical aspect of this metabolic-limb system by massaging it, that is, by raising it to a certain degree from the spiritual state to the state of consciousness. One supports this system in its effectiveness, and in this way one brings about a stronger flow of the spiritual-soul through this system. And if you then understand how this metabolic limb system works, you will know, for example, that what pulsates in the arms and hands, what pulsates there as spiritual-soul, continues inwardly and governs the inner metabolism of the human being, then you will also know what it means to bring about partial consciousness through massage in the arms and hands. This means promoting the spiritual-soul aspect in the metabolic system, but in the metabolic system that builds up inwardly in the human being, effecting digestion, absorbing the substance, effecting digestion in such a way that it has a substance-absorbing effect.

So one can say: if one finds that a person is suffering internally from metabolic disorders, but metabolic disorders that are related to the fact that their food is not being properly absorbed by the body, or that the processing of this food in the building process is not taking place properly, in short, that the internal metabolism is not functioning properly, then in certain cases — one must of course have detailed knowledge in order to see this correctly — arm and hand massage can be helpful. It is based on supporting the spiritual-soul aspect in its effectiveness through the degree of consciousness that is brought about by the massage. If one massages the legs and feet, something else will happen. That which permeates the legs and feet as spiritual-soul is in turn organically connected with excretory processes, with breakdown processes. Therefore, if digestion is not working properly in this direction, so that the excretory processes are not taking place in the right way, a massage of the legs and feet may help in some circumstances.

But you see, when one examines the medical essence in this way through spiritual science, then one does not accomplish such things empirically by chance, when they just happen to present themselves empirically, but one can consciously work toward a treatment of the connection between physiology, pathology, and therapy in the most diverse areas. As I said, I would like to tell you these things just to shed light on the directions in which we must go. And I know very well how much such things strike people, because of course not all the details can be brought to light.

If we take, for example, a disease that can cause great concern even to doctors, such as diabetes mellitus, then we must again look at the connection between the spiritual-soul, namely the conscious spiritual-soul, the spiritual-soul permeated by the ego, and the physical carrier of this ego activity. But now something different happens than in the case mentioned first today. Let us assume that this ego activity becomes too great in the human organism. It expands beyond its measure. Then abnormal excretion processes can take place, as they do in diabetics. So here we are dealing, in a sense, with an exaggerated ego activity in the organic itself. We are dealing with an excessive sinking of the ego into the organic, so that this deep sinking drives out precisely what appears in diabetics.

Now we can again turn our attention away from what is going on inside the human being and direct it to what is going on in the human external world. In the external world, we have plants, which we already recognized this morning as developing a process from the bottom up in a certain way, which humans develop from the top down. In fact, what I would call hypertrophic ego activity works into the organism in diabetes, contrary to the direction of plant growth. If we then find the right function in the growing plant, we may be able to establish a relationship between what is working downward in the diabetic and what is working upward in the plant. We only have to understand the plant in such a way that we say to ourselves: The plant is a being, physically too; it grows, it reproduces itself, so it has an etheric body. It also has an etheric body for spiritual scientific observation. But it does not achieve inner soul mobility; it therefore has no astral body, nor does it have any ego activity. But it does grow toward ego activity, toward astral activity. What the plant develops upward, the human being develops downward.

If we are now able to observe what actually happens in the plant as it grows in the direction in which the human being, in contrast, develops his ego from above to below, we find that what arises in the plant can have an inner relationship to this inner ego activity precisely because it also has something to do with combustibility. I have previously drawn attention to combustible bodies. Now we see combustible, volatile, combustible-like physicality developing from the plant in the etheric oils. When we see the etheric oils developing in certain plants, then it follows from such a consideration, as I have just indicated, that this is the opposite activity to that which, for example, the ego activity pressed into the human organism exerts, causing the person to become diabetic. And if we bring to the human being, in the right way, that which we have in the outside world as the opposite, we can counteract diabetes.

In this case, one must take real countermeasures, that is, for example, by adding essential oils or even the plants themselves, which produce essential oils, to baths and letting people bathe in such baths. In this way, the forces that the plant develops in the essential oils work from the outside in, counteracting the forces that cause diabetes. We can help people in this way, precisely through such baths.

I am only giving a few examples from the rich abundance that can be presented, many of which I presented to medical specialists this spring. I am only mentioning this here in relation to principles, but you can see from this how medicine is gradually being made rational, so that it is exemplified that one really sees the process within the human being and sees the process in external nature, and sees how these two processes either support, sustain, or counteract each other, how a process that is in the human organism can be stopped, and how healing can be sought. If we extend this way of looking at things, I would say that we will continue to advance in our understanding of the physical human being and his or her connections with the spiritual and soul aspects of the human being. You know that the problem of heredity plays a major role in the modern scientific view of medicine. However, this problem of heredity is treated in a very abstract and external way throughout. External science can do little to connect it with what actually works in the human being. For the human being is in fact — and now I would like to present something to you that must be gained from rich anthroposophical research, but which I would like to present as a result — formed out of the whole rest of the world that belongs to him as the earthly world and also as the extraterrestrial world. And they are formed in different ways.

We find, for example, that the female organism is formed, let us say, from nature or from the cosmos, in such a way that the female organism has more of those forces that are, in a sense, less bound to the forces of the earth. There is something strongly extraterrestrial in the female organism. In the male organism, those forces that are connected with earthly life are predominantly developed. This is not usually taken into account in everyday life, but it is taken into account in reproduction. The point is that the forces that work in the female organism and contribute to reproduction are in fact the transmission of what is extraterrestrial and is integrated into the entire human being. But that which brings human beings down into the earthly world is primarily organized in the male organism. And now let us consider that which is actually within human beings through their earthly environment. The most striking thing within them through their earthly environment is, of course, the activity of the I. This activity of the I gives the earthly development of human beings its full meaning. We must develop from other worlds into the earthly world in order to be able to fully develop ego activity in our spiritual-soul nature. I have shown you how this ego activity is bound to the framework of forces mediated by the blood. So we must say: that which is primarily organized by the blood, which primarily acts toward ego activity, is brought about by the male personality through procreation; that which organizes the extraterrestrial in the human being, which must first be permeated by ego activity, comes more from the female side.

So we find the male and female working together in this way in reproduction, and we can only gain a proper understanding of heredity when we realize this. First, the male influence touches the female seed, the female germ. And this female germ has a certain independence in the female organism. We must say that when we have a fully grown female organism before us, this extraterrestrial element acts primarily in the rest of the female organism. It does not act in that part of the female organism that gives rise to germ formation, and in particular it does not act after conception. So that the female germ that has gone through conception has a certain independence, that is, it transmits what it means as a mediator of ego activity to the offspring in a certain way independently. When one knows these things, one can apply them in such a way that phenomena in the outer world appear to illustrate what one has first gained in spiritual vision. Through spiritual vision, one gains the insight that something extraterrestrial is indeed anchored in the female organism, that the earthly, which is attached to blood activity, is mediated by the male organism, and that through this mediation, the female germ acquires a certain independence, separated, as it were, from the rest of the extraterrestrial female organism, develops through fertilization.

Such a process, which one recognizes spiritually and soulfully, is in the background when one wants to explain such a strange phenomenon as that of hemophiliacs, or bleeding disorders. Here, the remarkable fact comes to light that there are people who suffer from a lack of blood clotting to such an extent that they bleed profusely at the slightest physical injury, often without any such injury being detectable, and thus tend to bleed to death. This blood disorder has something very peculiar about it: Men from families with hemophilia do not develop the bleeding disorder if they are born to women who come from families without hemophilia; they do not develop this bleeding disorder as men. However, when women have offspring who come from families with hemophilia, they themselves do not inherit the bleeding disorder; on the other hand, the men descended from them do develop the bleeding disorder. This means that the bleeding disorder is passed on through the woman. This points to the independence of the germ that I just mentioned. And the external appearance illustrates, in a sense, what we gain through spiritual insight.

Well, today I have, in a sense, only presented you with a narrative of some things that run in the following direction. I have shown you how, on the one hand, spiritual insight can be used to look into the nature of the human being, into the concrete nature of the human being, into his or her processes of building up and breaking down, into his or her processes of healing and illness, which are actually in constant interaction and between which a balance must be sought. I have shown you how, through spiritual insight, one can find the interrelationship between the human being and his environment, how one can thereby build a bridge from physiology and pathology to therapy. And finally, I wanted to illustrate with a special example how — I have chosen an extreme case, that of hemophilia and the hereditary conditions associated with hemophilia — if one looks at nature in the right way in cases where nature reveals its obvious secret, one can find everywhere illustrations of what one has first recognized through spiritual science. So that there is no objection that someone who cannot see into the spiritual world has no way of finding any proof for what the spiritual scientist claims. No, that is not the case. Rather, it is a matter of being able to accept the results of spiritual science I would say, on the one hand without dogmatism and belief in authority, and on the other hand without preconceived, prejudiced skepticism. One simply accepts them. One does not say at first: I believe them — but one does not reject them lightly either; one takes them and tests them against external reality.

You will see that when you apply what at first seems paradoxical, often even fantastical, to your life, when you ask life to confirm it in the points that matter, you will find that it is brought down from the spiritual world through supersensible observation in spiritual research. You will find that empirical evidence confirms the findings of spiritual research in every case. Those people who today reject the insights of this spiritual world on the pretext that they cannot see into the spiritual world are like the man who sees a piece of iron shaped in this way (it is drawn) and says: I will use this to shoe my horse, it is a horseshoe. But the other person says to him: It is a pity to shoe the horse with that, because it has magnetic powers, it is a magnet — and when he is answered: I see no magnetic power, for me it is a horseshoe.

Yes, the fact is that the spiritual is in all material things, that we now live in an age where this spiritual must be sought. Those who, in their research into matter, want to ask questions without seeking the spirit, are like those who use a horseshoe, a magnet, to shoe a horse, who therefore do not know how things should actually be used in the material world. As fragmentary and aphoristic as what I have been able to say to you today in addition to the lecture must have been, it was only intended to show the direction in which medical studies must proceed in the future. For these medical studies are so closely connected with the social being. Just as the human world can only be healthy socially if spiritual insight is brought into social judgment, so our medicine can only be healthy if spiritual vision is brought into it.

You see, we are not fantasists in any field. At least we do not want to be dilettantes in any field. This is serious research, but research that has developed the principle that is widely applied today. When a hypothesis is put forward here or there today, it is said to be a convenient tool for understanding phenomena. In mathematics, too, people are already coming up with such hypotheses or lines of thought. Spiritual science stands on the ground that nothing must be shied away from in order to achieve everything that is necessary for the progress of human life, that nothing must be shied away from in terms of expending energy in the direction of this necessity. And today, we can clearly hear the signs of the times from the course of human development, which tell us: we can no longer move forward with the old guidelines.

Well, this Dornach came into being precisely because we can no longer move forward with the old guidelines, and here we are to seek what the new guidelines are. We have specialized enough. Now it is a matter of bringing the individual specialties together again. Perhaps you will see in this course how the spiritual forces that bring these individual specialties together should flow from a center. To do this, however, we must leave behind the comfortable paths that so many seek today. But the fruits will lie above all in the direction of human progress. For this very reason, I would have liked above all for everything that can be said here from a spiritual-scientific point of view to have been said by specialists. And so I was not at all happy that I myself had to speak to you here about one of the most important fields, the field of medicine. But since things have turned out this way, there was no other option, and you will have to make do with it. However, what would have been important in any case, whether a specialist or a general observer had presented the necessary information here, would have been to show that even in this difficult field of medicine, progress is only possible through the fertilization of spiritual research. I would say that this would have been demonstrated quite clearly if someone had come forward in this field who, based on the traditions of the time and everything that the times themselves could offer to physicians, could have shown, on the other hand, through an open mind for spiritual science, that It is possible to stand at the very height of today's medical science, official medical science, and yet be such a good spiritual scientist that one can only believe that even this medicine can only be tolerated today if it can be illuminated by spiritual science. Whether this could have become clear to you in a sufficiently intense way by the fact that I had to replace the specialist physician, I do not know. But I hope that there will be more opportunities to show, in a way that is also clear to the times due to external circumstances, that medicine, too, can only be led into the future if the spirit penetrates it as it is meant to, as is at least strived for here in this Goetheanum, when Goethe's spirit enters medicine.