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Manifestations of Karma
GA 120

19 May 1910, Hamburg

4. The Curability and Incurability of Diseases in Relation to Karma

It may be presumed, in regard to the two ideas which are to form the subject of our present lecture, namely, the curability and incurability of diseases, that there will be clearer conceptions and—one might say—concepts more acceptable to humanity, when the ideas of karma and karmic connections in life have gained ground in wider circles. One may indeed say that in regard to the ideas of the curability and incurability of diseases there have been various opinions in different centuries, and one need not go so very far back to find how greatly these have changed.

We find a time at the turning point between the Middle Ages and modern times, about the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, when the idea gradually gained ground that forms of disease could be strictly limited, and that for every disease there was some sort of herb or mixture by which the disease in question could be cured. This belief lasted for a long time, even into the nineteenth century, and when we as laymen, or as those who have accepted the ideas of the present day, read of the treatment of disease from the end of the eighteenth or the beginning of the nineteenth centuries and for some time later, we are astonished at the remedies and recipes which were largely used at that time: teas, mixtures, more dangerous medicines, blood-letting, etc.

In the nineteenth century this view was reversed into the exact opposite in medical circles, and indeed in distinguished medical circles. I may say that during the earlier years of my life many of these opposing views came before me in various forms. The opportunity for this came to all who followed the progress of the ‘nihilistic school of medicine’ which was started in Vienna about the middle of the nineteenth century and which won more and more favour. The commencement of a radical change in the views on the curability and incurability of diseases was due to what the renowned physician Dietel brought to light in regard to pneumonia and similar diseases. From all kinds of observations he came to the conclusion that fundamentally there is absolutely no real effect to be noticed from the use of various remedies on the course of this or that disease. Under the influence of the school of Dietel, the young doctors of that day learned to think of the healing value of the remedies which had been used for centuries in such a way that they almost outdid what is conveyed in the well-known saying:—‘When the cock crows on the dung-heap the weather will change—or it will remain as it is!’ They were of the opinion that it made little difference to the course of this or that disease whether one administered a certain remedy or not. Now Dietel was one who, for that period, collected very convincing statistics showing that in his so-called ‘wait and see’ treatment, approximately as many people who were suffering from pneumonia were cured or died as was the case in the earlier treatment with time-honoured remedies. The waiting treatment founded by Dietel, and continued by Skoda consisted in bringing the patient into a condition in which he was best able to stimulate the self-healing powers and to draw them forth from his organism. The doctor had little more to do than watch the course of the disease and to be at hand if anything happened, so that he could give practical help with human needs. For the rest, he confined himself to watching the disease come, so to speak, and waiting to see how the self-healing forces came out of the organism, until after a time the fever subsided and self-healing came about.

This school of medicine was called, and is still called, ‘The Nihilistic School,’ because it rested on a statement by Professor Skoda who said approximately:—‘We may perhaps learn to diagnose diseases, to describe them, perhaps even explain them, but we cannot heal them!’ I give you these details of developments in the course of the nineteenth century so that you may realise how ideas have changed on this subject. But because this or that is related in purely narrative form it is not implied that you should take sides in any way, for obviously the statement of the celebrated Professor Skoda was a kind of radicalism, the limits of which are quite easy to define. There was, however, one point or aspect which was repeatedly emphasised by this particular school of medicine. Although they had no means of proving it and had not even the words to describe exactly the content of their conception they repeatedly affirmed that there must be in man some element which determines the appearance and the course of his illness, and which is fundamentally beyond the reach of any human intervention.

Thus a reference was made to something beyond human aid; and if one really goes to the bottom of these things, this indication cannot relate to anything other than the law of karma and its activity in human life. If we follow the course of a disease in human life, how it develops, and how the healing powers spring forth from the organism itself; if we follow the process of healing impartially—particularly if we reflect how in one case a cure takes place, while in another it fails—we shall then be driven to search for a deeper law determining this. Can this deeper law be sought for in the previous earth-life of man? That is a question for us. Can we say that a person brings with him certain predispositions which in one particular case called forth the healing powers from his organism, but which in another case, in spite of every effort, held these forces back?

It will be remembered from the last lecture that in the events which take place between death and a new birth, particular forces are taken into the human individuality. During the period in kamaloca the events of a person's last life, the good and evil deeds he has done, the qualities of his character, etc., come before his soul, and through the vision of his own life he acquires the tendency to bring about the remedy and compensation for all that is imperfect in him and which has manifested as wrong action. He is moved to acquire those qualities which will bring him nearer to perfection in various directions. He forms intentions and tendencies during the time up to a new birth, and goes into existence again with these intentions. Further, he himself works upon the new body which he acquires for his new life, and he builds in conformity with the forces he has brought from previous earthly lives, and from the time between death and re-birth. He is furnished with these forces, and builds them into his new body. From this it may be seen that this new body will be weak or strong according as the person is in the position to build weak or strong forces into it.

Now it must be clearly understood that a certain consequence will come when, for example, during the life in kamaloca, a person sees that in the last life, he did many actions under the influence of the emotions of anger, fear, aversion, etc. These actions now stand vividly before his soul in kamaloca, and in his soul is formed the thought (the expressions which we have to use for these forces are of course coined from the physical life): ‘You must do something to yourself, so that you will become more perfect in this respect, so that in the future you will no longer be inclined to commit such actions under the dominance of your emotions.’ This thought becomes an integral part of the human-soul individuality, and during the passage through to a new birth, it is imprinted still further as a force in the new body. Thus this new body is penetrated with the tendency so to act on the whole organisation of the physical body, the etheric body and astral body, that it will be prevented from performing certain actions resulting from the emotions of anger, hate, envy, etc. He will be impelled to fresh actions which will compensate for previous ones. Thus from a reason which extends far beyond his ordinary rationality, the person is imbued with a strong desire for a higher perfection in certain directions, and with the desire also to compensate for certain deeds. If we consider how manifold life is, and how day by day we perform actions which require compensation of this sort, we shall understand that when the soul enters into a next existence on earth, it contains many such thoughts waiting to be balanced, and that these manifold thoughts and tendencies cross one another, making the human physical body and etheric body receive a complex warp and woof of such tendencies and desires. To illustrate this, let us take a striking case, and I must again repeat that I avoid speaking from any sort of theory or hypothesis, and that when I give examples I give only those that have been tested by Spiritual Science.

Let us suppose that in his previous life a person acted from an Ego-feeling which was much too weak, and which allowed of too much influence from the outer world—so much so that it gave to his actions a lack of independence, a lack of character which no longer fits the present state of humanity. Thus it was this lack of feeling of self which led him in one incarnation to perform certain actions. During the kamaloca period, he had before him the actions which have proceeded from this atrophy of his Ego and from this he acquires the tendency: ‘You must develop within you forces which increase your feeling of personality; in your next incarnation you must seek for opportunities to strengthen this feeling, to train it, as it were, against the opposition of your body, against the forces which will come to you in your next incarnation from your physical body, etheric body and astral body. You must make a body which will show you the consequences of a weak personality.’

The effect of this in the next incarnation will not be able fully to enter into the consciousness; it will run its course more or less in a sub-conscious region. The person in question will strive for an incarnation in which he will encounter the greatest opposition to his Ego-consciousness, so that he has to exert these feelings to the highest degree. This striving draws him, as if magnetically, to places and circumstances where he meets with great hindrances, so that his Ego is stimulated into action in opposition to the organisation of the three bodies. Strange as it may sound, the individualities who have this karma, coming into existence by birth in the way we have described, seek opportunities where, for instance, they will be exposed to an epidemic such as cholera, for this gives them the opportunity of meeting with the opposition we have described above. The activity which is thus experienced in the inner being of the person who is ill owing to the opposition of the three bodies, can then so work that in the next incarnation his feeling of self will be much stronger.

Let us take another striking instance, and so that we may perceive the connection, we will purposely take exactly the opposite case. During the kamaloca period, a person sees that he has acted from too strong a feeling of self. He sees that he must be more temperate as regards this feeling and that he must subdue it. So he will seek an opportunity whereby in the next incarnation his threefold organism will so condition him that his Ego-consciousness, however much it strives, will find no limitations, and he will be led to the unfathomable and to absurdity. These opportunities come to him when karma brings him malaria.

Here you have a case of disease brought about by karma which explains that fundamentally man is led by a higher kind of reason than he perceives with his ordinary consciousness to circumstances which in the course of his karma are favourable to his development. If we bear in mind what has just been said, we shall find it much easier to understand the epidemic nature of diseases. We could bring forward many different examples showing how, because of his experience in the kamaloca period, a man actually seeks for the opportunity to get a certain illness, in order that by overcoming it and by developing the self-healing forces, he may gain strength and power which will lead him upward on the path of evolution.

I said previously that if a person has done many things under the influence of his passions, he will in the kamaloca period live through actions which have also come about under such an influence. This will arouse in him the tendency in his next incarnation to experience some obstacle in his own body and by overcoming this, he will be in the position to compensate for certain actions in his previous life. Especially is this the case in the form of illness which in these modern times we call diptheric, which in many cases appears when there is a karmic complication due to previous acts which were dominated by the emotions and passions.

In the course of these lectures, we shall have to speak on the causes of various illnesses, but we must now go still more deeply if we wish to answer the question: ‘If a person enters into existence in such a way that, through his karma, he brings with him the tendency whereby he overcomes suffering to gain some other thing, how, then, does it come about that one succeeds in overcoming the disease and acquiring forces which bring him higher, while another succumbs, and the disease is the victor?’ Here we have to go back to the spiritual principles which allow disease to be possible in human life.

If a man can fall ill, and can through karma even seek illness—this is due to a certain principle that has come already before us in our studies of Spiritual Science. We know that at a certain point in the Earth's evolution there penetrated into the development of humanity the forces we call luciferic, which belong to beings who remained behind during the ancient Moon evolution, and who did not advance far enough to reach, as it were, the normal point of their development. Thereby was implanted into the astral body of man, before his Ego could work in the proper manner, a principle which streamed from these luciferic beings. So the influence of these beings was once exercised on man's astral body, and he has retained it throughout his evolution. This influence plays a great part in human evolution; but for our present task it is important to point out that as a result of these forces, he had within him that which led him to be less perfect than he would otherwise have been if such influence had not come. It also gave him the tendency to act and judge more from his emotions, passions and desires, than he would have done if the luciferic influence had not entered. This influence produced a change in the real individuality of man who became more subject to what we may call ‘World of Desire’ than would otherwise have been the case, and it is because of this influence that man has become much more identified with the physical earthly world than he would otherwise have been. Through the luciferic influence man has entered more into his body and has identified himself more with it, for if the influence of the luciferic beings had not been there, many of the things that allure man to desire this or that would not have come. Man would have been quite indifferent to these allurements. But allurements of the external world of the senses came through this influence of Lucifer, and man yielded to them. The individuality which was given by the Ego was permeated with the activities proceeding from the luciferic principle, and so it came about that in his first incarnation on earth man succumbed to the allurements of the luciferic principle, and carried these enticements with him into later lives. We can say that the way in which he succumbed to the allurements of the luciferic principle, became an integral part of his karma.

Now, if man had taken only this principle into himself he would have succumbed more and more to the allurements of the physical earth world; he would gradually have been obliged to resign the prospect of breaking loose again from this world. We know that the Christ influence which came later opposed the luciferic principle and balanced it again, as it were, so that in the course of evolution man again received the means by which to rid himself of the luciferic influence. But with this influence something else was given at the same time. The fact that this influence had penetrated into his astral body made the whole of the external world into which he entered appear different to him. Lucifer entered into the inner being of man, who then saw the world around him through Lucifer. His vision of the earthly world was thereby clouded and his external impressions were mingled with what we call the ahrimanic influence. Ahriman could only insinuate himself and make the external world into illusion because we had previously created from within the tendency towards illusion and maya. Thus the ahrimanic influence which came into the external world was a consequence of the luciferic influence. We may say that when once the luciferic forces were there, man enmeshed himself more in the sense-world than he would have done without this influence; but thereby he absorbed the ahrimanic influence with every external perception. Thus in the human individuality which goes through incarnations on the earth, there is a luciferic influence, and, as a result of this, the ahrimanic influence. These two powers are continually fighting in the human individuality which has become their field of battle.

Man in his ordinary consciousness is still exposed to the allurements of Lucifer which work from the passions and emotions of his astral body; also he is subject to the enticements of Ahriman which come to him from outside in the way of error, deception, etc., in regard to the outer world. As long as a person is incarnated on the earth his ideas put an obstacle in the way, so that what comes from Lucifer and Ahriman cannot penetrate deeper, but finds a hindrance in his concepts, his acts being subservient to his moral or intellectual judgement. But when a person between birth and death sins against morality in following Lucifer, or against logic or sound thinking in following Ahriman, that concerns only his ordinary conscious soul life. When, on the other hand, he passes through the portal of death, the life of idea which is bound to the instrument of the brain ceases, and a different form of consciousness begins; then, all the things which in the life between birth and death were submitted to the moral or rational judgement, penetrate down into the foundation of the human being, into that which, after kamaloca, organises the next existence and imprints itself into the plastic forces, which then construct a threefold human body. Errors resulting from devotion to Ahriman develop into forces of disease which affect man through his etheric body. Faults which were the object of a moral judgement between birth and death develop into causes of disease which work more from the astral body.

From this we see how, in fact, our errors from the ahrimanic forces within us, including such voluntary errors as lies, etc., develop into causes of disease, if we do not merely consider the one incarnation, but observe the effect of one incarnation on the next. We see also how the luciferic influences in the same way become the causes of disease, and we may in fact say, ‘our errors do not go unpunished. We bear the stamp of our errors in our next incarnation.’ But we do this from a higher reason than that of our ordinary consciousness—from a consciousness which during the period between death and a new birth directs us to make ourselves so strong that we shall no longer be exposed to these temptations. Thus in our life, disease even plays the part of a great teacher. If we study illnesses in this way we shall see unmistakably that an illness is a manifestation of either luciferic or ahrimanic influences. When these things are understood by those who under the guidance of Spiritual Science wish to become physicians, the influence of these healers on the human organism will be infinitely more profound than it can be today.

We can examine certain forms of disease from this standpoint. Let us take pneumonia for example; it is a karmic effect which follows when during his life in kamaloca the person in question looks back to a character which had within it the tendency towards sexual excess, and a desire to live a sensual life. Do not confuse what is now ascribed to a previous consciousness with what appears in the consciousness in the following incarnation. This is quite a different matter. Indeed, that which a person sees during his life in kamaloca will so transform itself that forces are imprinted in him by means of which he will overcome pneumonia. For it is exactly in the overcoming of this disease, in the self-healing which is then striven for that the human individuality acts in opposition to the luciferic powers and wages a pitched battle against them. Therefore in the overcoming of pneumonia is given the opportunity to lay aside that which was a defect in the character in a previous incarnation. In this complaint we see unmistakably the war of man against the luciferic powers.

Now the case is different in the so-called ‘tuberculosis of the lungs,’ when we see the singular phenomenon whereby the self-healing forces become active, and the injurious influences are surrounded and framed in by a calcareous matter with a tissue which is then filled in and which forms solid concretions. A person may have these concretions in his lungs, and many more people have such things than is usually supposed, for these are the persons in whom a tuberculous lung has been healed. Where such a thing has taken place, a war has been waged by the human inner being against what the ahrimanic forces have produced. It is a defensive process from within against what has been brought about by external materiality, in order to lead to the independence of the human being in this special sense.

We have shown how, in fact, the two principles—the ahrimanic and the luciferic—are at work at the very foundation of a disease. And in many ways it can be pointed out that in the various forms of disease one distinguishes essentially two types, the ahrimanic and the luciferic. If this were considered, the true principles would be discovered by which to find a suitable remedy for the patient; for luciferic diseases will require entirely different remedies from the ahrimanic. To-day external forces are used for the purposes of healing in a way which betrays a certain want of judgement—forces such as electro-therapy, the cold water treatment, etc. Much light could be thrown by Spiritual Science on the suitability of one method or another, if it were first decided whether a luciferic or ahrimanic illness is being treated. For example, electro-therapeutics ought not to be used in illnesses which originate from luciferic causes, but only in ahrimanic forms of illness. For electricity, which has no connection whatever with the activities of Lucifer, is useless in treating luciferic forms of disease; it belongs to the sphere of the ahrimanic beings, although, of course, other beings beside the ahrimanic make use of the forces of electricity. On the other hand, warmth and cold belong to the sphere of Lucifer. Everything which has to do with making the human body warmer or colder, or that which makes it warmer or colder through external influences, belongs to the sphere of Lucifer; and in all the cases in which we have to deal with warmth or cold we have a type of luciferic form of disease.

From this we see how karma works in illness and how it works to overcome illness. It will now no longer seem incomprehensible that in karma there also lies the curability or incurability of a disease. If we clearly understand that the aim—the karmic aim of illness is the progress and the improvement of man, we must presume that if a man in accordance with the wisdom which he brings with him into this existence from the kamaloca period contracts a disease, he then develops the healing forces which involve a strengthening of his inner forces and the possibility of rising higher. Let us suppose that man in the life before him, owing to his other organism and his remaining karma were, to have the force of progressing during this life itself by means of that which he has acquired through illness. Then the healing has an object. The person comes forth healed from the illness, having gained what he was to gain. Through the conquest of the illness he has acquired perfect forces where previously he had imperfect forces. If through his karma he is equipped with such powers, and if through the favourable circumstances of his former fate he is so placed in the world that he can use the new forces, and can work so as to be of use to himself and others, then healing comes about and he recovers.

Now let us suppose a case in which a person overcomes a disease, develops the healing forces, and then is confronted with a life which exacts from him a degree of perfection he has not yet gained. He would, indeed, gain something through the conquered disease, but it is, however, impossible—because the rest of his karma does not admit it—with the little he has gained to assist others. Then it comes about that his deeper subconsciousness says:—‘Here you have no opportunity of receiving the full force of what you really ought to have. You had to go into this incarnation to gain the degree of perfection which you can only attain in the physical body by overcoming the disease. That you had to acquire; but you cannot develop it further. You have now to go into conditions in which your physical body and the other forces do not disturb you, where you can freely work out what you have gained through the illness.’ Such an individual seeks for death so as to use further, between death and another birth, what he cannot use in life. Such a soul goes through the phase between death and re-birth in order to construct an organisation with the stronger forces it has gained by overcoming disease. In this way through the presence of an illness, a payment on account, as it were, may be made, and the payment is completed after passing through death.

When we consider the matter in this way we shall say: It undoubtedly seems to be founded on karma that one illness ends in being cured and another terminates in death. If we see illnesses terminated in this way, we shall obtain through karma, from a higher standpoint a kind of reconciliation, a profound reconciliation with life; for we shall know that it lies within the law of karma that—even if an illness terminates in death—man progresses, and that even in such a case the illness has the object of bringing the person higher. Now no one must draw from this the conclusion that we ought to wish that death should take place in certain cases of illness. No one may say this, because the decision regarding what ought to happen, whether healing or otherwise, belongs to a higher power of judgement than the one included in our ordinary consciousness. In the world which lies between birth and death, and with our ordinary consciousness, we must humbly let such questions stand over. With our higher consciousness we may, however, even take the standpoint that death is the gift of the higher spiritual powers. But that consciousness which is to help and set to work in life must not presume to place itself along with this higher consciousness, for we might then easily err and we should interfere unjustifiably in something which must never be interfered with, namely, the sphere of human freedom. If we can help a person to develop the self-healing forces, or assist him to aid nature, so that a cure may come about, we must do it. And if the question should arise as to whether the patient ought to live on further, or whether he would be more helped if he died, our assistance must nevertheless always be given towards healing. If this is done we help the human individuality to use its own powers, and the medical assistance only supports him in this. It does not work into the human individuality. It would be quite different if we were to help on an incurable disease in a person in order that he should seek his further progress in another world. We should then interfere with his individuality, and deliver this up to another sphere of action. We should be imposing our will upon the other and we must leave this to the other individual himself. In other words, we must do everything possible for him to be cured; for all the deliberation which leads to a cure comes from the consciousness which is ripe for our Earth, and all other measures would reach beyond our Earth sphere. Other forces than those which belong to our ordinary consciousness would then have to work.

Thus we see that a true karmic understanding concerning the curability and incurability of disease leads to our doing everything possible to help the person who is ill, and, on the other hand, it also leads to our being comforted if a different decision comes from another sphere. We do not require anything else as regards this other decision. It is necessary for us to find a point of view from which the incurability of a disease does not depress us, as though the world contained only what is imperfect and evil. The conception of karma does not paralyse our activities in regard to healing. On the contrary, it will again bring us into harmony with regard to the hardest fate, with regard to the incurability of a certain illness.

Thus we have seen today how the understanding of karma alone makes it possible for us to comprehend the course of an illness in the right way, and to understand that in our present life we see the karmic effects of our previous life. Detailed examples will be given later when we discuss the other subject. We have now to distinguish between illnesses which come from the inner being of man, which appear as the result of karma, and those illnesses which come to us apparently by chance, through our being exposed to some accident or other. In brief, we shall now see how we may arrive at a karmic understanding of accidents, as, for example, when one falls under the wheels of a railway train. How are we to understand so-called accidents in connection with karma?

Vierter Vortrag

Es darf die Voraussetzung gemacht werden, daß gerade über die beiden Begriffe, welche den Gegenstand unserer heutigen Betrachtung bilden sollen, nämlich Heilbarkeit und Unheilbarkeit von Krankheiten, deutlichere und, man kann sagen, menschenfreundlichere Vorstellungen herrschen werden, wenn einmal die Ideen von Karma und karmischen Zusammenhängen im Leben in weiteren Kreisen werden Platz gegriffen haben. Man darf ja sagen, daß in bezug auf die Begriffe Heilbarkeit und Unheilbarkeit von Krankheiten in den verschiedensten Jahrhunderten die verschiedensten Meinungen verbreitet waren. Und man braucht nicht sehr weit zurückzugehen, um zu sehen, wie ungeheuerlich sich diese Begriffe verändert haben.

Da finden wir eine Zeit - sie ist die Wende zwischen dem Mittelalter und der neueren Zeit, so etwa das 16., 17. Jahrhundert -, da entwickelten sich allmählich die Vorstellungen, daß man die Krankheitsformen in einer strengen Weise eingrenzen könne und daß es eigentlich für eine jede Krankheit irgendein Kräutlein, irgendeine Mixtur gebe, durch welche die betreffende Krankheit unbedingt geheilt werden müsse. Dieser Glaube dauerte im Grunde recht lange, sogar bis in das 19. Jahrhundert hinein. Und wenn man als Laie oder als Mensch, der die heutigen Zeitbegriffe in sich aufgenommen hat, nachlesen wollte in den Mitteilungen von Krankenbehandlungen vom Ende des 18. oder dem Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts und bis weit in das 19. Jahrhundert hinein, so würde man erstaunen über all die Mittel und Mittelchen, die damals reichlich angewendet worden sind, von Tees, Mixturen bis zu gefährlicheren Arzneien, Aderlässen und so weiter. Aber gerade das 19. Jahrhundert war es, welches in medizinischen Kreisen, und zwar in angesehenen medizinischen Kreisen, diese Ansicht in das genaue Gegenteil verkehrt hat. Und ich darf wohl selbst sagen, daß mir vieles von diesen gegenteiligen Ansichten während meiner jüngeren Jahre in den verschiedensten Nuancen und Motiven vor Augen getreten ist. Es war die Gelegenheit dazu gegeben, wenn man etwa die Strömung der nihilistischen medizinischen Schule mitmachte, die sich um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts in Wien vorbereitete und eigentlich immer mehr und mehr an Ansehen gewann. Der Ausgangspunkt zu einer radikalen Änderung in bezug auf die Anschauungen über Heilbarkeit und Unheilbarkeit von Krankheiten war das, was der bedeutende Mediziner Dietl über den Verlauf der Lungenentzündung und ähnlicher Krankheiten zutage förderte. Er war durch allerlei Betrachtungen dazu gekommen, sich zu sagen, daß im Grunde gar kein rechter Einfluß von diesem oder jenem Mittel auf den Verlauf dieser oder jener Krankheit zu bemerken sei. Und gerade unter dem Einfluß von Dietls Schule lernten die damaligen jungen Mediziner über den Heilwert der seit Jahrhunderten heraufgekommenen Heilmittel so denken, daß sie auf alle alten Mittel übertrugen, was mit dem bekannten Sprichwort gemeint ist: Kräht der Hahn auf dem Mist, so ändert sich das Wetter, oder es bleibt, wie es ist! — Sie waren der Meinung, daß es ziemlich einerlei sei für den Verlauf einer Krankheit, ob man diese oder jene Mittel verabreiche oder nicht. Und Dietl war einer, der eine für die damalige Zeit recht überzeugende Statistik zustande brachte, die besagte, daß bei der von ihm eingeführten sogenannten abwartenden Behandlungsweise ungefähr ebenso viele Menschen, die an Lungenentzündung erkrankt waren, geheilt wurden oder starben als bei der früheren Behandlung mit den altehrwürdigen Heilmitteln. Die von Dietl begründete, von Skoda weiter fortgeführte abwartende Behandlung bestand darin, daß man den Kranken in die äußere Lebenslage brachte, die ihn instande setzte, die selbstheilenden Kräfte am allerbesten in Anwendung zu bringen, sie hervorzuholen aus seinem Organismus, und dem Arzte wies man kaum eine andere Stellung an, als den Verlauf der Krankheit zu überwachen, damit er da war, wenn irgend etwas eintrat, wo man mit menschlichen Mitteln sachgemäß Hilfe leisten kann. Im übrigen beschränkte man sich darauf, die Krankheit sozusagen kommen zu sehen, abzuwarten, wie die selbstheilenden Kräfte aus dem Organismus herauskamen, bis das Fieber nach einiger Zeit abfiel und die Selbstheilung durch den Organismus eintrat.

Diese medizinische Schule wurde und wird noch heute mit dem Ausdruck der «nihilistischen Schule» belegt, weil sie auf einem Ausspruch von Professor Skoda fußte, der ungefähr sagte: Wir können vielleicht lernen, Krankheiten zu diagnostizieren, sie zu beschreiben, vielleicht auch zu erklären - heilen aber können wir sie nicht! — Ich erzähle Ihnen Dinge, von denen Sie als von Tatsachen, welche sich im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts herausgebildet haben, Notiz nehmen sollen, damit Sie eine Empfindung dafür erhalten, wie sich Vorstellungen auf diesem Gebiete geändert haben. Aber es möge niemand glauben, daß, wenn dies oder jenes hier in rein erzählender Form ausgesprochen wird, deshalb gleich in der einen oder andern Weise Partei ergriffen werden soll. Denn selbstverständlich war der Ausspruch des berühmten Professors Skoda eine Art Radikalismus, und es würde leicht sein, die Grenzen, innerhalb welcher ein solcher Ausspruch gilt, aufzuzeigen. Auf eins aber war mit solcher Meinung hingewiesen, ohne daß man eigentlich die Mittel hatte, bewußt diesen Hinweis irgendwie zu begründen oder zu umschreiben oder in Worte zu bringen — ja nicht einmal in Gedanken konnte man ihn bringen; das heißt, man konnte in den Kreisen, in welchen man ihn aussprach, nicht einmal daran gehen, diesen Hinweis zu denken. Es wurde darauf hingewiesen, daß sich allerdings im Menschen etwas finden müsse, was in gewisser Beziehung bestimmend ist für den Ausgang und für den Verlauf einer Krankheit und was als solches im Grunde genommen doch jenseits dessen liegt, was menschliche Hilfe leisten kann.

Es war also der Hinweis auf etwas gegeben, was jenseits der menschlichen Hilfe liegt; und dieser Hinweis kann niemals, wenn man wirklich den Dingen zu Leibe geht, sich auf etwas anderes beziehen als auf das Gesetz von Karma und auf die Wirksamkeit von Karma im Verlaufe des menschlichen Lebens. Wenn wir den Verlauf einer Krankheit im menschlichen Leben verfolgen — das Heraufkommen der Krankheit, die aus dem Organismus selbst hervorsprießenden Heilkräfte -, wenn wir die Heilentwickelung verfolgen, dann werden wir bei unbefangener Betrachtungsweise, besonders wenn wir darauf Rücksicht nehmen, wie in dem einen Falle Heilung eintritt, während in einem andern Falle keine Heilung möglich erscheint, dahin getrieben werden, nach tieferer Gesetzmäßigkeit zu suchen. Darf diese tiefere Gesetzmäßigkeit gesucht werden in den früheren Erdenleben des Menschen? Das ist für uns die Frage. Darf davon gesprochen werden, daß sich der Mensch gewisse Vorbedingungen mitbringt, die ihn geradezu vorausbestimmt machen, in einem besonderen Falle seine Heilkräfte aus dem Organismus aufrufen zu können, die aber in einem andern Falle so vorausbestimmt sind, daß er trotz aller Anstrengungen nicht imstande ist, die Krankheit zu heilen?

Wenn Sie sich an das erinnern, was namentlich gestern ausgeführt worden ist, so werden Sie begreifen, daß in den Vorgängen, die sich abspielen zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, allerdings ganz besondere Kräfte aufgenommen werden in die menschliche Individualität. Haben wir doch gesagt, daß dem Menschen während der Kamalokazeit die Ereignisse seines letzten Lebens, seine von ihm verrichteten Handlungen im Guten und Bösen, seine Charaktereigenschaften und so weiter vor die Seele treten und daß er durch die Anschauung seines eigenen Lebens in sich die Tendenz aufnimmt, für alles, was unvollkommen in ihm ist und was sich als eine unrichtige Handlung gezeigt hat, Abhilfe und Ausgleich zu schaffen, sich die betreffenden Eigenschaften einzuprägen, welche ihn auf diesem oder jenem Gebiete vollkommener machen. Haben wir das begriffen, so können wir sagen: Diese Absicht, diese Tendenz behält nun der Mensch und geht durch eine neue Geburt mit dieser Absicht wieder ins Dasein. — Der Mensch baut aber selbst an dem neuen Leibe, der sich ihm angliedert und ihn umgliedert im neuen Leben, und er baut ihn auf gemäß den Kräften, welche er sich mitgebracht hat aus früheren Lebensläufen und aus der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Mit diesen Kräften ist er ausgestattet und webt sie hinein in seine neue Körperlichkeit. Damit haben wir begriffen, daß diese neue Körperlichkeit schwach oder stark ist, je nachdem der Mensch schwache oder starke Kräfte in sie hineinweben kann.

Nun müssen wir uns aber doch klar sein, daß eine gewisse Folge eintreten wird, wenn zum Beispiel der Mensch während des Kamalokalebens gesehen hat: Du warst im letzten Leben ein Mensch, der viele Handlungen begangen hat unter dem Einflusse seiner Affekte, von Zorn, Furcht, Abscheu und so weiter. — Solche Handlungen stehen nun lebendig vor seiner Seele in der Kamalokazeit, und da bildet sich heraus in dieser Seele der Gedanke — die Ausdrücke, die uns für diese Kräfte erwachsen können sind natürlich für das physische Leben geprägt! -: Du mußt an dir etwas tun, damit du in dieser Beziehung vollkommener wirst, damit du in der Zukunft nicht mehr geneigt bist, Handlungen unter dem Einflusse deiner Affekte zu begehen! - Dieser Gedanke wird ein Bestandteil der menschlichen Seelenindividualität, und beim Durchgehen durch eine neue Geburt prägt sich dieser Gedanke weiter ein als eine Kraft in den neu entstehenden Leib. Und in diesen fließt dadurch ein die Tendenz, so etwas zu vollführen mit der ganzen Organisation von physischem Leib, Atherleib und astralischem Leib, was dem Menschen es jetzt unmöglich macht, aus seinen Affekten heraus, aus Zorn, Haß, Neid und so weiter gewisse Handlungen zu begehen, damit er imstande ist, in dieser Beziehung wirklich sich vollkommener zu machen. Und dadurch wird er dazu kommen, neue Handlungen zu vollführen, welche jetzt den Ausgleich früherer Handlungen bewirken können. So läßt der Mensch aus einer seine gewöhnliche Vernünftigkeit weit überragenden Vernünftigkeit die Absicht in sich hineinfließen, die ihn zu einer höheren Vollkommenheit auf einem bestimmten Gebiete und zum Ausgleich bestimmter Handlungen führen kann. - Wenn Sie in Betracht ziehen, wie mannigfaltig das Leben ist, wie der Mensch von Tag zu Tag solche Handlungen vollführt, die einen derartigen Ausgleich erfordern, so werden Sie begreifen, daß viele solcher nach Ausgleich harrender Gedanken in der Seele sind, wenn die Seele durch eine neue Geburt ins Dasein tritt, und daß diese mannigfaltigen Gedanken sich kreuzen, so daß dadurch der menschliche physische Leib und Ätherleib eine Konfiguration erhalten, in welche alle diese Tendenzen hineinverwoben sind. Um uns nun das verständlich zu machen, nehmen wir einen ganz eklatanten Fall an. Gerade heute aber muß ich ganz besonders betonen, was ich auch sonst stets betone: daß ich vermeide, aus irgendeiner Theorie oder Hypothesenmacherei zu sprechen und daß ich, wenn ich Beispiele anführe, nur solche anführe, die von der Geisteswissenschaft wohl geprüft sind.

Nehmen wir an, jemand habe im letzten Leben so gelebt, daß er aus einem viel zu schwachen Ich-Gefühl heraus gewirkt hat, aus einem IchGefühl, welches in der Hingabe an die äußere Welt viel zu weit ging, so weit, daß es mit einer Unselbständigkeit, Selbstverlorenheit wirkte, wie es für unseren heutigen Menschheitszyklus nicht mehr angemessen ist. Also das fehlende Selbstgefühl war es, welches einen Menschen in einer Inkarnation zu diesen oder jenen Handlungen geführt hat. Nun hat er während der Kamalokazeit die Handlungen vor sich gehabt, die aus diesem fehlenden Selbstgefühl herausgeflossen sind. Er nimmt daraus zunächst die Tendenz auf: Du mußt in dir Kräfte entwickeln, welche dein Selbstgefühl erhöhen, du mußt in einer nächsten Inkarnation dir die Gelegenheit schaffen, gegen den Widerstand deiner Leiblichkeit, gegen die Kräfte, welche dir entgegenkommen werden aus physischem Leib, Atherleib und astralischem Leib, dein Selbstgefühl zu stählen, damit es gleichsam eine Schule durchmacht. Du mußt dir einen Leib anschaffen, der dir zeigt, wie aus der Leiblichkeit heraus die Anlage zu einem schwachen Selbstgefühl wirkt!

Was sich dann in der nächsten Inkarnation abspielen wird, wird wenig ins Bewußtsein treten, es wird sich mehr oder weniger in einer unterbewußten Region abspielen. Der Betreffende wird hinstreben zu einer solchen Inkarnation, welche gerade die derbsten Widerstände seinem Selbstgefühl entgegensetzt, so daß er es nötig hat, sein Selbstgefühl im höchsten Maße anzuspannen. Dadurch wird er wie magnetisch hingezogen werden zu solchen Gegenden und solchen Gelegenheiten, wo sich ihm tiefere Hindernisse entgegenstellen, wo sich sein Selbstgefühl ausleben soll gegen die Organisation der drei Leiber. So sonderbar es Ihnen klingen mag: Solche Individualitäten, die mit diesem Karma belastet sind, daß sie in der charakterisierten Weise durch die Geburt ins Dasein hineinstreben, suchen den Zugang zu Gelegenheiten, wo sie zum Beispiel einer Seuche wie der Cholera ausgesetzt sein können; denn diese bietet ihnen Gelegenheit, jene Widerstände, welche eben gekennzeichnet worden sind, zu finden. Was dabei durchzumachen ist im Inneren gegen die Widerstände der drei Leiber in dem Erkrankten, das kann dann bewirken, daß in der nächsten Inkarnation das Selbstgefühl in einem erheblichen Grade gewachsen ist.

Nehmen wir einen andern eklatanten Fall an, und zwar, damit Sie den Zusammenhang durchschauen können, jetzt gerade den entgegengesetzten Fall. Ein Mensch sieht während der Kamalokazeit, daß er unter einem zu starken Selbstgefühl eine Reihe von Handlungen vollführt hat, die aus einem zu starken Auf-sich-selbst-Bauen geflossen sind. Er sieht, daß er sich mäßigen muß in bezug auf sein Selbstgefühl, daß er es zurückdämmen muß. Da muß er wieder eine Gelegenheit aufsuchen, wo ihm in der nächsten Inkarnation seine drei Leiber die Möglichkeit geben, daß das Selbstgefühl überall in der Leiblichkeit — wie es sich auch anstrenge — keine Schranken findet, daß es überall ins Bodenlose hinein und sich selbst ad absurdum führt. Die Bedingungen dazu sind hergestellt, wenn der Betreffende hingezogen wird zu einer Gelegenheit, die ihm die Malaria bringt.

Da haben Sie einen Krankheitsfall des karmischen Wirkens und sogar den Satz dargelegt, daß im Grunde der Mensch aus einer höheren Vernünftigkeit, als diejenige ist, welche er mit seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein überschauen kann, hingeleitet wird zu den Gelegenheiten, wo er sich im Verlaufe seines Karma weiter fortentwickeln kann. Wenn Sie namentlich die Dinge ins Auge fassen, welche jetzt eben gesagt worden sind, wird es Ihnen sehr erleichtert werden, Verständnis zu gewinnen gerade für das Epidemische bei den Krankheiten. Wir könnten die verschiedensten Beispiele anführen, die uns alle zeigen, wie der Mensch aus den Erfahrungen seiner Kamalokazeit heraus geradezu die Gelegenheiten aufsucht, diese oder jene Krankheit zu bekommen, um durch ihre Überwindung und durch die Entfaltung der selbstheilenden Kräfte die Kräfte zu gewinnen, welche ihn die Lebensbahn im ganzen hinaufführen.

Vorhin sagte ich, wenn ein Mensch viel unter dem Einfluß von Affekten gehandelt hat, so wird er in der Kamalokazeit ebenfalls Handlungen durchleben, die unter dem Einfluß von Affekten überhaupt geschehen sind. Das wird ihm die Tendenz geben, in seiner neuen Inkarnation, in seiner eigenen Leiblichkeit so etwas zu erleben, durch dessen Überwindung er Handlungen vollführt, welche ausgleichend wirken können auf gewisse Handlungen seines früheren Lebens. Insbesondere ist es da jene Form der Erkrankung, die wir in der neueren Zeit als Diphtherie kennen, die in vielen Fällen zutage tritt, wenn eine solche karmische Verwicklung vorliegt, wo sich der Betreffende früher in der Weise ausgelebt hat, daß er vielfach aus allerlei Aufwallungen, Affekten und so weiter gehandelt hat.

Wir werden im Verlaufe dieser Vorträge noch manches zu hören bekommen darüber, wie diese oder jene Krankheit bedingt ist. Wir müssen aber jetzt auf noch tiefere Grundlagen eingehen, wenn wir uns die Frage beantworten wollen: Wie kommt es, daß, wenn der Mensch durch die Geburt ins Dasein tritt und er sich durch sein Karma die Tendenz mitbringt, durch die Überwindung dieses oder jenes Leidens das eine oder das andere zu erreichen, wie kommt es, daß es ihm einmal gelingt, wirklich Sieger zu sein, die Krankheit zu überwinden und Kräfte in sich aufzunehmen, die ihn höher bringen, während er das andere Mal unterliegt und die Krankheit Sieger bleibt? Da müssen wir auf die geistigen Prinzipien zurückgehen, die überhaupt das Kranksein im Menschenleben möglich machen.

Daß der Mensch überhaupt erkranken kann, daß er geradezu das Kranksein - sogar aus seinem Karma heraus — suchen kann, das kommt zuletzt aus keinen andern Prinzipien heraus als aus denjenigen, die wir schon oft in den verschiedensten Zusammenhängen unserer theosophischen Betrachtungen uns haben vor die Seele treten lassen. — Wir wissen, daß in einem bestimmten Punkte der Erdentwickelung diejenigen Kräfte in die menschliche Entwickelung eingetreten sind, welche wir die luziferischen Kräfte nennen, welche solchen Wesenheiten angehören, die während der alten Mondentwickelung zurückgeblieben sind und nicht so weit vorgeschritten sind, daß sie sozusagen an dem normalen Punkt ihrer Erdentwickelung angelangt wären. Dadurch wurde dem astralischen Leibe des Menschen, bevor sein Ich in der entsprechenden Weise wirken konnte, etwas eingepflanzt, was aus diesen luziferischen Wesen herausströmte. Der Einfluß dieser luziferischen Wesenheiten ist daher ein solcher, der vorzugsweise auf unseren astralischen Leib einstmals ausgeübt worden ist und den der Mensch für die Folgezeit durch seine Entwickelung hindurch in seinem astralischen Leib hatte. Dieser luziferische Einfluß bedeutet in der menschlichen Entwickelung mancherlei. Für unseren heutigen Zweck ist es aber wichtig, hervorzuheben, daß der Mensch, indem er die luziferischen Kräfte in sich hatte, in seinem Inneren einen Verführer hatte, weniger gut zu sein, als er gewesen wäre, wenn der luziferische Einfluß nicht gekommen wäre; und ebenso hatte er dadurch einen Einfluß, mehr aus allerlei Affekten, Leidenschaften und Begierden heraus zu handeln und zu urteilen, als er geurteilt und gehandelt haben würde, wenn der luziferische Einfluß nicht gewirkt hätte. Durch diesen Einfluß wurde des Menschen eigentliche Individualität veranlaßt, anders zu sein, sozusagen mehr hingegeben zu sein an das, was wir die Begierdenwelt nennen können, als es sonst der Fall gewesen wäre. Und dadurch ist es gekommen, daß der Mensch viel tiefer hineinverstrickt worden ist in die physische Erdenwelt, als es sonst geschehen wäre. Der Mensch drängt sich durch den luziferischen Einfluß mehr hinein in seine Leiblichkeit, identifiziert sich mehr mit der Leiblichkeit, als er sie durchdrungen hätte, wenn kein luziferischer Einfluß gekommen wäre. Denn wäre der Einfluß der luziferischen Wesenheiten nicht gekommen, so wäre so mancherlei von dem, was den Menschen auf der Erde locken kann, dieses oder jenes zu begehren, nicht gekommen. Der Mensch wäre gleichgültig an den Eindrücken dieser oder jener Lockmittel vorbeigegangen. Durch Luzifers Einfluß entstanden die Verlockungen der äußeren sinnlichen Welt; diese Verlockungen nahm der Mensch in sich auf. Die Individualität, die durch das Ich gegeben war, wurde durchtränkt mit den Wirkungen, die aus dem luziferischen Prinzip heraus kamen. Und so kam es, daß der Mensch bei seinen ersten Erdeninkarnationen auch den ersten Verlockungen des luziferischen Prinzips verfallen war und diese Verlockungen mitnahm in die späteren Leben. Das heißt, daß die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch den Verlockungen des luziferischen Prinzips verfiel, zu einem Bestandteil seines Karma wurde.

Wenn nun der Mensch nur dieses Prinzip in sich aufgenommen hätte, so würde er immer mehr und mehr den Verlockungen der physischen Erdenwelt verfallen sein; er würde sozusagen immer mehr die Aussicht verloren haben, von dieser physischen Erdenwelt wieder loszukommen. Wir wissen, daß der spätere Einfluß — der Christus-Einfluß — dem luziferischen Prinzip entgegengewirkt hat und es gleichsam wieder zum Ausgleich gebracht hat, so daß der Mensch im Laufe seiner Entwickelung wieder Mittel erhalten hat, diesen luziferischen Einfluß aus sich herauszutreiben. Aber mit dem luziferischen Einfluß war zugleich etwas anderes gegeben. Dadurch, daß der Mensch in seinem astralischen Leib den luziferischen Einfluß aufgenommen hatte, erschien ihm auch die ganze äußere Welt, in die er eintrat, ganz anders, als sie ihm erschienen wäre, wenn er dem luziferischen Einfluß nicht hingegeben gewesen wäre. Luzifer drang in des Menschen Inneres. Der Mensch sah mit Luzifer im Inneren die Welt um sich herum. Dadurch trübte sich sein Blick für die Erdenwelt, und es mischte sich nun in die äußeren Eindrücke hinein der ahrimanische Einfluß. Nur dadurch konnte sich Ahriman einmischen und die äußere Welt zur Illusion gestalten, weil wir uns schon früher von innen heraus die Anlage zur Illusion, zu Maja geschaffen hatten. So war der ahrimanische Einfluß, der hineinzog in die äußere Welt, die den Menschen umgab, die Folge des luziferischen Einflusses. Wir können sagen: Der Mensch saugte ein, weil einmal die luziferischen Kräfte in ihm waren, die Möglichkeit, sich mehr in die Sinnenwelt zu verstricken, als er sich ohne den luziferischen Einfluß in das sinnliche Erdenleben verstrickt hätte. Dadurch hat er sich aber auch die Möglichkeit geschaffen, mit allen äußeren Wahrnehmungen von außen den ahrimanischen Einfluß einzusaugen. Und so lebt in der menschlichen Individualität, indem sie durch die verschiedenen Erdeninkarnationen hindurchgeht, der luziferische Einfluß, und als das Ergebnis des luziferischen Einflusses der ahrimanische Einfluß. Diese zwei Mächte kämpfen fortwährend in der menschlichen Individualität. Und die menschliche Individualität ist der Schauplatz geworden für den Kampf von Luzifer und Ahriman.

Der Mensch ist mit seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein auch heute noch ausgesetzt sowohl den Verlockungen Luzifers, der aus den Leidenschaften und Affekten seines astralischen Leibes heraus wirkt, wie auch den Verlockungen Ahrimans, der durch Irrtümer, Täuschungen in bezug auf die äußere Welt von außen in den Menschen eindringt. Solange nun der Mensch in einer Inkarnation lebt und die Vorstellungen einen Riegel vorschieben, so daß das, was von Luzifer und Ahriman geschieht, nicht tiefer eindringen kann und ein Hindernis findet an den Vorstellungen, so lange bleibt das, was der Mensch tut, dem moralischen oder dem intellektuellen Urteil unterworfen. Solange der Mensch zwischen Geburt und Tod gegen die Moral sündigt, indem er Luzifer folgt, oder sich gegen die Logik und das gesunde Denken versündigt, indem er Ahriman folgt, so lange bleibt das eine Angelegenheit des gewöhnlichen bewußten Seelenlebens. Wenn der Mensch aber durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, hört das Vorstellungsleben auf, das an das Instrument des Gehirns gebunden ist. Da beginnt eine andere Form des Bewußtseinslebens. Da dringen in der Tat alle die Dinge, welche im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod dem moralischen oder dem vernünftigen Urteil unterworfen sind, herunter in die Untergründe des menschlichen Wesens und greifen ein in das, was dann nach dem Kamaloka für das nächste Dasein organisierend wirkt und sich hineinprägt in die plastischen Kräfte, die nun die dreifache menschliche Leiblichkeit aufbauen. Da werden Irrtümer, welche aus der Hingabe an Ahriman folgen, zu Krankheitskräften, die vom Ätherleib her den Menschen infizieren, und Ausschweifungen, also Dinge, welche im Leben dem moralischen Urteil unterworfen sind, werden zu Krankheitsursachen, welche mehr vom astralischen Leib her wirken.

Dadurch sehen wir, wie in der Tat unsere Irrtümer aus dem Ahrimanischen in uns - und dazu sind auch die bewußten Irrtümer: Lügen, Unwahrheiten zu rechnen — zu Krankheitsursachen werden, wenn wir allerdings nicht bei einer Inkarnation stehenbleiben, sondern die Wirkung einer Inkarnation auf die folgende betrachten; und wir sehen, wie auch die luziferischen Einflüsse zu Krankheitsursachen auf demselben Wege werden. Wir können in der Tat sagen: Wir begehen unsere Irrtümer nicht ungestraft! Wir tragen den Stempel unserer Irrtümer in unserer nächsten Inkarnation an uns, aber wir tun es aus einer höheren Vernünftigkeit heraus, als diejenige unseres gewöhnlichen Lebens ist, aus derjenigen Vernünftigkeit, welche uns während der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt anweist, uns so stark und kräftig zu machen, daß wir fernerhin diesen Verlockungen nicht mehr ausgesetzt sind. So reihen sich Krankheiten sogar ein als mächtige Erzieher in unser Leben. - Wenn wir Krankheiten so betrachten, können wir förmlich sehen, wie bei der Ausbildung einer Krankheit entweder luziferische oder ahrimanische Einflüsse wirksam sind. Wenn einmal diese Dinge werden durchschaut werden von denen, die unter dem Einfluß der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung Heiler sein werden, dann werden die Einflüsse dieser Heiler auf den menschlichen Organismus viel intimere sein, als sie heute sein können.

Wir können geradezu in diesem Sinne den Organismus gewisser Krankheitsformen durchschauen. Nehmen wir zum Beispiel eine solche Krankheit wie die Lungenentzündung. Sie ist eine Wirkung in der karmischen Folge, welche dadurch entsteht, daß der Betreffende während seiner Kamalokazeit zurückblicken kann auf einen Charakter, der in sich hatte Hang und Neigung zu sinnlichen Ausschweifungen, der in sich hatte sozusagen ein Bedürfnis, sinnlich zu leben. Verwechseln wir ja nicht, was jetzt einem früheren Bewußtsein zugeschrieben wird, mit dem, was im Bewußtsein der nächsten Inkarnation auftritt. Damit hat es zunächst nichts zu tun. Wohl aber wird das, was der Mensch während der Kamalokazeit sieht, sich so umwandeln, daß sich ihm Kräfte einprägen zu Vorgängen, welche die Lungenentzündung überwinden. Denn gerade in der Überwindung der Lungenentzündung, in der Selbstheilung, welche dabei vom Menschen angestrebt wird, wirkt die menschliche Individualität entgegen den luziferischen Mächten, führt einen förmlichen Krieg gerade gegen die luziferischen Mächte. Daher ist in der Überwindung der Lungenentzündung eine Gelegenheit, dasjenige abzulegen, was ein Charaktermangel in einer vorherigen Inkarnation war. So sehen wir förmlich wirken in der Lungenentzündung den Kampf des Menschen gegen die luziferischen Mächte.

Anders stellt sich uns die Sache dar, wenn wir bei dem, was wir im heutigen Sprachgebrauch Lungentuberkulose nennen, die eigentümlichen Prozesse auftreten sehen, wenn die selbstheilenden Kräfte in Tätigkeit übergehen, die sich dadurch äußern, daß die schädigenden Einflüsse, welche da entstehen, umgeben werden, umrandet werden von Umhüllungen wie Bindegewebe; dann wird das Ganze ausgefüllt mit kalk-salzhaltiger Materie, welche feste Einschlüsse bildet. Solche Einschlüsse kann der Mensch in seiner Lunge haben, und viel mehr Menschen tragen solche Dinge mit sich herum, als man gewöhnlich glaubt; denn das sind diejenigen Menschen, bei denen eine tuberkulöse Lunge in Heilung übergegangen ist. Wo derartiges vor sich ging, ist wieder ein Kampf aufgeführt worden der menschlichen inneren Wesenheit gegen das, was ahrimanische Kräfte angestellt haben. Es ist ein Abwehrprozeß nach außen, ein Anstürmen gegen das, was durch äußere Materialität hergebracht wird, um zur Selbständigkeit der menschlichen Wesenheit in diesem Sinne zu führen.

Damit haben wir gezeigt, wie in der Tat die beiden Prinzipien, das ahrimanische und das luziferische, im letzten Grunde im Krankheitsverlauf tätig sind. Und es könnte in vieler Beziehung für diese oder jene Krankheitsform gezeigt werden, wie man eigentlich zwei Typen von Krankheiten unterscheiden müßte: ahrimanische und luziferische Krankheiten. Wenn man das beachten würde, so würde man auch richtige Prinzipien gewinnen können für die entsprechende Hilfe, welche man den Kranken angedeihen lassen kann. Denn luziferische Krankheitsprozesse werden ganz andere Hilfe erfordern als ahrimanische. Wenn heute noch in einer ziemlich kritiklosen Weise, zum Beispiel im äußeren Heilverfahren, Kräfte angewendet werden, die in der heutigen Elektrotherapie, in der Kaltwasserbehandlung oder in ähnlichem enthalten sind, so muß gesagt werden, daß von vornherein durch die Geisteswissenschaft ein Licht darauf geworfen werden kann, ob man die eine oder die andere Methode anwenden soll, dadurch, daß man unterscheiden würde, ob man es mit einer luziferischen oder einer ahrimanischen Krankheit zu tun hat. Kein Mensch sollte zum Beispiel das Verfahren der Elektrotherapie anwenden bei Erkrankungen, die aus dem Luziferischen stammen; sondern man sollte sie nur bei ahrimanischen Krankheitsformen anwenden. Denn eine Hilfe kann bei luziferischen Krankheitsformen niemals etwas sein, was überhaupt mit dem Wirken des Luzifer gar nichts zu tun hat, nämlich die Prinzipien der Elektrizität; denn diese fallen in das Bereich der ahrimanischen Wesenheiten, wobei sich natürlich nicht nur die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten der Kräfte der Elektrizität bedienen. Dagegen ist ein ganz besonderes Gebiet des Luziferischen dasjenige, was sich bezieht, grob ausgedrückt, auf Warm und Kalt. Alles, was damit zu tun hat, daß die menschliche Organisation wärmer oder kälter wird oder was sie selbst durch äußere Einflüsse wärmer oder kälter macht, das gehört in das Bereich des Luzifer. Und bei alledem, wo wir es zu tun haben mit Warm oder Kalt, haben wir einen Typus luziferischer Krankheitsformen.

So also sehen wir, wie Karma in dem Kranksein wirkt und wie es zur Überwindung von Kranksein wirkt. Nun wird es nicht mehr unbegreiflich erscheinen, daß im Karma auch die Heilbarkeit oder Unheilbarkeit einer Krankheit liegt. Wenn Sie sich klarmachen, daß ja das Ziel, das karmische Ziel des Erkrankens das ist, den Menschen zu fördern und vollkommener zu machen, so ist die Voraussetzung die, daß der Mensch, wenn er nach der Vernünftigkeit, die er sich aus der Kamalokazeit beim Eintritt in ein neues Dasein mitbringt, einer Krankheit verfällt, jene Heilkräfte dann entwickelt, welche eine Stählung seines inneren Menschen bedeuten und die Möglichkeit, höher zu kommen. Nehmen wir an, die Sache liege so, daß der Mensch in dem Leben, das er noch zubringen kann, vermöge seiner sonstigen Organisation und seines übrigen Karma die Kräfte hat, mit dem, was er durch die Krankheit errungen hat, in diesem Leben selbst weiterzukommen. Dann hat die Heilung einen Sinn. Dann tritt Heilung ein und der Mensch hat in diesem Falle das errungen, was er erringen sollte und was sich an dem Vorhandensein der Krankheit zeigte. Durch das Überwinden der Krankheit hat er sich instand gesetzt, dort vollkommene Kräfte zu haben, wo er früher unvollkommene Kräfte hatte. Ist er durch sein Karma mit solchen Kräften ausgerüstet und durch die günstigen Umstände seines früheren Schicksals so in die Welt gesetzt, daß er die neuen Kräfte anwenden kann und wirken kann, um sich und andern von Nutzen zu sein, dann tritt die Heilung ein; dann windet er sich durch die Krankheit hindurch.

Nehmen wir nun an, die Sache liege für den Menschen so, daß er die Krankheit überwinder und die Heilkräfte entwickelt und nunmehr vor einem Leben stünde, welches an ihn Anforderungen stellen würde, die mit dem Maß, das er sich jetzt schon errungen hat an Vollkommenem, nicht erfüllt werden können: Er würde zwar einiges erringen durch die geheilte Krankheit, aber es wäre doch nicht möglich, daß er so viel erringt — weil sein übriges Karma das nicht zuläßt -, daß er mit dem, was er sich errungen hat, den andern zum Heile werden kann. Dann tritt das ein, daß sein tieferes Unterbewußstsein sagt: Hier hast du keine Gelegenheit, die volle Kraft von dem zu empfangen, was du eigentlich haben sollst. Du mußtest in diese Inkarnation hineingehen, weil du das Maß an Vollkommenheit gewinnen mußtest, das du nur im physischen Leibe durch die Überwindung einer Krankheit erringen kannst. Das mußtest du erringen; aber weiter ausbilden kannst du es nicht. Nun mußt du in die Verhältnisse gehen, wo dein physischer Leib und andere Kräfte dich nicht stören und wo du frei verarbeiten kannst, was du in der Krankheit gewonnen hast. — Das heißt, es sucht eine solche Individualität den Tod, um zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt das weiterzuverarbeiten, was sie im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod nicht verarbeiten kann. Es geht eine solche Seele durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durch, um jetzt mit um so stärkeren Kräften, die sie beim Überwinden der Krankheit gewonnen hat, ihre Organisation weiter auszubilden, damit sie im neuen Leben um so mehr wirken kann. In dieser Weise kann förmlich durch die Anwesenheit einer Krankheit eine Art Abschlagszahlung bewirkt werden, die dann erst ergänzt wird nach dem Durchgehen durch den Tod zu dem, was sie sein soll.

Wenn wir die Sache so betrachten, werden wir uns sagen müssen: Es erscheint durchaus im Karma begründet, daß die eine Krankheit ausgeht mit der Heilung, die andere mit dem Tod. - Wenn wir so die Krankheiten ansehen, werden wir von einem höheren Gesichtspunkt aus durch Karma eine Art Versöhnung, eine tiefe Versöhnung mit dem Leben gewinnen; denn wir werden wissen, daß es in der Gesetzmäßigkeit von Karma liegt, daß, selbst wenn eine Krankheit mit dem Tode ausgeht, der Mensch gefördert wird, daß selbst in einem solchen Falle die Krankheit das Ziel hat, den Menschen höher zu bringen. Nun darf niemand daraus etwa den Schluß ziehen: dann könnte es auch sein, daß wir geradezu den Tod herbeiwünschen müßten in gewissen Krankheitsfällen. Das darf niemand sagen, weil die Entscheidung darüber, was eintreten soll, ob Heilung oder Unheilbarkeit, einer höheren Vernünftigkeit zufällt, als die ist, welche wir mit unserem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein umfassen können. Mit unserem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein müssen wir uns bescheiden innerhalb der Welt zwischen Geburt und Tod, bei solchen Fragen stehenzubleiben. Mit unserem höheren Bewußtsein dürfen wir uns allerdings selbst auf den Standpunkt stellen, der sogar den Tod hinnimmit als ein Geschenk der höheren geistigen Mächte. Mit demjenigen Bewußtsein aber, das helfen und eingreifen soll ins Leben, dürfen wir uns nicht vermessen, uns auf diesen höheren Gesichtspunkt zu stellen. Da könnten wir uns leicht irren und würden in einer unerhörten Weise eingreifen in etwas, worin wir nie eingreifen dürfen: in die menschliche Freiheitssphäre. Wenn wir einem Menschen helfen können, damit er die selbstheilenden Kräfte entwickelt, oder indem wir selbst der Natur zu Hilfe kommen, damit Heilung eintritt, so müssen wir das tun. Und soll die Entscheidung darüber fallen, ob der Mensch weiterleben soll oder ob er mehr gefördert wird, wenn der Tod eintritt, dann kann sie niemals anders als so fallen, daß unsere Hilfe eine Hilfe in der Heilung sein kann. Ist sie dies, so setzen wir es in des Menschen eigene Individualität, seine Kräfte anzuwenden, und die ärztliche Hilfe kann dabei nur eine solche sein, die ihn darin unterstützt. Dann wirkt sie nicht hinein in die menschliche Individualität. Ganz anders wäre es, wenn wir eines Menschen Unheilbarkeit in der Weise fördern würden, daß er sein weiteres Fortkommen in einer anderen Welt suchte. Da würden wir in seine Individualität eingreifen und seine Individualität einer andern Wirkungssphäre übergeben. Dann hätten wir unseren Willen der andern Individualität aufgedrängt. Diese Entscheidung müssen wir der Individualität selbst überlassen. Das heißt mit andern Worten: Wir müssen so viel als möglich tun, damit eine Heilung geschieht. Denn alle Überlegungen, die zu einer Heilung führen, kommen aus dem Bewußtsein, das für unsere Erde berechtigt ist; alle andern Maßnahmen würden übergreifen über unsere Erdensphäre; da müssen andere Kräfte eingreifen als die, welche in unser gewöhnliches Bewußtsein hineinfallen.

So sehen wir, daß ein richtiges karmisches Verständnis über Heilbarkeit und Unheilbarkeit von Krankheiten dazu führt, daß wir alles aufbringen werden, um dem Menschen zu helfen in der Krankheit; und auf der andern Seite führt es uns auch dazu, daß wir, wenn aus andern Sphären eine andere Entscheidung getroffen wird, diese ebenfalls zu unserer Befriedigung hinnehmen. Etwas anderes haben wir in bezug auf diese andere Entscheidung auch gar nicht nötig. Nötig haben wir, daß wir einen Gesichtspunkt finden, daß uns die Unheilbarkeit einer Krankheit nicht niederdrückt, als ob die Welt nur das Unvollkommene, das Schlimme und Schlechte hätte. Karmisches Verständnis lähmt nicht unsere Tatkraft in bezug auf das Heilen. Karmisches Verständnis wird uns auf der andern Seite auch wieder in Harmonie bringen mit dem schwersten Schicksal in bezug auf Unheilbarkeit dieser oder jener Krankheit. So haben wir heute gesehen, wie uns karmisches Verständnis allein möglich macht, den Verlauf einer Krankheit in der richtigen Weise aufzufassen und zu begreifen, daß wir geradezu hineinleuchten sehen die karmischen Wirkungen aus unseren früheren Leben in das gegenwärtige. Beispiele im einzelnen werden sich uns noch bei Besprechung der nächsten Fragen darbieten.

Nun wird es uns obliegen, zu unterscheiden zwischen zwei besonderen Krankheitsformen, zwischen denjenigen, welche aus dem menschlichen Inneren kommen, und die ganz besonders erscheinen als durch das Karma herbeigetragen, und zwischen jenen Erkrankungen, die uns scheinbar zufällig treffen dadurch, daß wir äußeren Schädigungen ausgesetzt sind, daß uns dieses oder jenes passiert. Kurz, es wird sich darum handeln: Wie können wir zu einem karmischen Verständnis auch dann kommen, wenn wir zum Beispiel unter die Räder eines Eisenbahnzuges kommen? Das heißt, wie sind sogenannte «zufällige» Erkrankungen durch das Karma zu begreifen?

Fourth Lecture

It can be assumed that clearer and, one might say, more humane ideas will prevail regarding the two concepts that are the subject of our consideration today, namely the curability and incurability of diseases, once the ideas of karma and karmic connections in life have gained acceptance in wider circles. It is fair to say that the most diverse opinions have been held over the centuries regarding the concepts of the curability and incurability of diseases. And one does not have to go very far back to see how enormously these concepts have changed.

There was a time—the transition between the Middle Ages and modern times, around the 16th and 17th centuries—when the idea gradually developed that forms of disease could be strictly defined and that there was actually a herb or mixture for every disease that could cure it completely. This belief persisted for quite a long time, even into the 19th century. And if, as a layman or as a person who has absorbed today's concepts of time, one were to read reports of medical treatments from the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century and well into the 19th century, one would be astonished at all the remedies and panaceas that were used extensively at the time, from teas and mixtures to more dangerous medicines, bloodletting, and so on. But it was precisely the 19th century that turned this view on its head in medical circles, and indeed in respected medical circles. And I can say for myself that many of these opposing views came to my attention in various nuances and forms during my younger years. The opportunity arose when I joined the nihilistic medical school that was forming in Vienna in the mid-19th century and was actually gaining more and more prestige. The starting point for a radical change in views on the curability and incurability of diseases was what the eminent physician Dietl discovered about the course of pneumonia and similar diseases. Through all kinds of observations, he had come to the conclusion that, basically, no real influence of this or that remedy on the course of this or that disease could be observed. And it was precisely under the influence of Dietl's school that the young physicians of the time came to think about the healing value of remedies that had been used for centuries in such a way that they applied to all old remedies what is meant by the well-known proverb: “When the cock crows on the dung heap, the weather will change or remain as it is!” They were of the opinion that it was quite irrelevant to the course of a disease whether one administered this or that remedy or not. And Dietl was someone who produced statistics that were quite convincing for the time, which showed that with the so-called wait-and-see treatment he introduced, approximately the same number of people who had contracted pneumonia were cured or died as with the previous treatment using time-honored remedies. The wait-and-see treatment established by Dietl and continued by Skoda consisted of placing the patient in external circumstances that enabled him to make the best possible use of his self-healing powers, to draw them out of his organism, and the doctor was given little else to do than to monitor the course of the disease so that he was there if anything happened that could be properly helped by human means. Otherwise, they just watched the illness, waiting to see how the body's self-healing powers would kick in until the fever went down after a while and the body healed itself.

This school of medicine was and still is labeled “nihilistic” because it was based on a statement by Professor Skoda, who said something like: We may be able to learn to diagnose diseases, describe them, perhaps even explain them—but we cannot cure them! “I am telling you things that you should take note of as facts that emerged during the 19th century, so that you can get a sense of how ideas in this field have changed. But no one should believe that because this or that is stated here in a purely narrative form, one should immediately take sides in one way or another. For it goes without saying that the statement by the famous Professor Skoda was a kind of radicalism, and it would be easy to point out the limits within which such a statement is valid. However, this opinion pointed to one thing without actually having the means to consciously justify or describe this reference in any way or put it into words—it could not even be conceived; that is, in the circles in which it was expressed, it was not even possible to think about this reference. It was pointed out that there must indeed be something in human beings that is in a certain sense decisive for the outcome and course of an illness and that, as such, lies beyond what human help can achieve.

So there was a reference to something beyond human help; and if one really gets to the heart of the matter, this reference can never refer to anything other than the law of karma and the effectiveness of karma in the course of human life. If we follow the course of an illness in human life — the onset of the illness, the healing powers springing from the organism itself — if we follow the development of healing, then, if we look at it impartially, especially if we take into account how healing occurs in one case while in another case no healing seems possible, we are driven to search for a deeper law. Can this deeper law be sought in the previous earthly lives of human beings? That is the question for us. Can we say that human beings bring with them certain preconditions that predestine them to be able to call upon their healing powers from their organism in one particular case, but that in another case these powers are so predetermined that, despite all their efforts, they are unable to heal the illness?

If you recall what was said yesterday, you will understand that in the processes that take place between death and rebirth, very special forces are indeed absorbed into the human individuality. We have said that during the Kamaloka period, the events of a person's last life, his actions, both good and evil, his character traits, and so on, come before his soul, and that through the contemplation of his own life, he takes on the tendency to remedy and compensate for everything that is imperfect in him and that has shown itself to be an incorrect action, to imprint upon himself the relevant qualities that make him more perfect in this or that area. Once we have understood this, we can say: Man retains this intention, this tendency, and through a new birth he returns to existence with this intention. But man himself builds the new body that joins him and reorganizes him in his new life, and he builds it according to the forces he has brought with him from previous lives and from the time between death and new birth. He is equipped with these forces and weaves them into his new physicality. With this, we understand that this new physicality is weak or strong, depending on whether the human being can weave weak or strong forces into it.

Now, however, we must be clear that a certain consequence will occur if, for example, the human being has seen during the Kamaloka life: In your last life, you were a person who committed many acts under the influence of your emotions, of anger, fear, disgust, and so on. Such acts now stand vividly before your soul during the Kamaloka period, and the thought arises in this soul—the expressions that can arise for these forces are naturally shaped by physical life! -: You must do something to yourself to become more perfect in this respect, so that in the future you will no longer be inclined to commit actions under the influence of your emotions! - This thought becomes part of the individuality of the human soul, and as it passes through a new birth, this thought is further imprinted as a force in the newly emerging body. And this gives rise to a tendency to carry out such actions with the entire organization of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body, which now makes it impossible for the human being to commit certain actions out of his emotions, out of anger, hatred, envy, and so on, so that he is able to truly become more perfect in this respect. And through this he will come to perform new actions which can now bring about the compensation for earlier actions. Thus, out of a rationality far surpassing his ordinary rationality, the human being allows the intention to flow into himself which can lead him to a higher perfection in a certain area and to the compensation of certain actions. If you consider how manifold life is, how man performs such actions day after day that require such compensation, you will understand that there are many such thoughts in the soul that are waiting for compensation when the soul enters into existence through a new birth, and that these manifold thoughts intersect, so that the human physical body and etheric body acquire a configuration in which all these tendencies are interwoven. To make this understandable, let us take a very striking case. Today, however, I must emphasize particularly what I always emphasize: that I avoid speaking from any theory or hypothesis and that, when I give examples, I only give those that have been thoroughly tested by spiritual science.

Let us assume that someone lived their last life in such a way that they acted out of a much too weak sense of self, a sense of self that went too far in its devotion to the outer world, so far that it appeared as a lack of independence, a loss of self, which is no longer appropriate for our present human cycle. So it was the lack of self-esteem that led a person in an incarnation to commit this or that action. Now, during the Kamaloka period, they have had to face the actions that flowed from this lack of self-esteem. From this, he initially picks up the tendency: You must develop forces within yourself that increase your sense of self; in your next incarnation, you must create the opportunity to steel your sense of self against the resistance of your physical body, against the forces that will come against you from your physical body, etheric body, and astral body, so that it undergoes a kind of schooling. You must acquire a body that shows you how the predisposition to a weak sense of self works out of physicality!

What will then take place in the next incarnation will hardly enter consciousness; it will take place more or less in a subconscious region. The person concerned will strive for an incarnation that presents the strongest possible resistance to his sense of self, so that he is forced to strain his sense of self to the utmost. This will draw him magnetically to regions and opportunities where he will encounter deeper obstacles, where his sense of self will have to struggle against the organization of the three bodies. As strange as it may sound to you, such individuals, burdened with this karma, who strive to enter existence in the manner described, seek access to opportunities where they may be exposed to, for example, an epidemic such as cholera, because this offers them the opportunity to encounter the obstacles that have just been described. What the sick person has to go through internally against the resistance of the three bodies can then cause the sense of self to grow considerably in the next incarnation.

Let us take another striking case, and in order that you may understand the connection, let us take the opposite case. During the Kamaloka period, a person sees that, due to an excessive sense of self, he has committed a series of actions that stemmed from an excessive self-centeredness. He sees that he must moderate his sense of self, that he must curb it. He must seek another opportunity where, in his next incarnation, his three bodies will allow his self-esteem to find no barriers anywhere in his physicality — no matter how hard he tries — so that it can sink into the abyss and reduce itself to absurdity. The conditions for this are created when the person concerned is drawn to an opportunity that brings him malaria.

Here you have a case of illness caused by karmic action, and you have even stated that, fundamentally, human beings are guided by a higher rationality than that which they can perceive with their ordinary consciousness to opportunities where they can develop further in the course of their karma. If you consider specifically the things that have just been said, it will be much easier for you to understand the epidemic nature of diseases. We could cite many different examples that show us how human beings, based on their experiences during the Kamaloka period, actively seek out opportunities to contract this or that illness in order to gain, through overcoming it and developing their self-healing powers, the forces that will carry them forward on their entire life path.

I said earlier that if a person has acted a lot under the influence of emotions, they will also experience actions during the Kamaloka period that were done under the influence of emotions. This will give them a tendency to experience something similar in their new incarnation, in their own physical body, which they will overcome by doing things that can balance out certain actions from their previous life. In particular, it is the form of illness that we know in modern times as diphtheria that often comes to light when such a karmic entanglement exists, where the person concerned has previously lived in such a way that they have often acted out of all kinds of impulses, emotions, and so on.

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

The fact that human beings can become ill at all, that they can actually seek illness — even out of their karma — ultimately comes from no other principles than those we have often brought to mind in the most diverse contexts of our theosophical considerations. We know that at a certain point in the Earth's development, forces entered human evolution which we call the Luciferic forces. These forces belong to beings that remained behind during the ancient Moon evolution and did not advance far enough to reach, so to speak, the normal point of their Earth evolution. As a result, something that flowed out of these Luciferic beings was implanted in the astral body of the human being before his ego could work in the appropriate way. The influence of these Luciferic beings is therefore one that was once exerted primarily on our astral body and which the human being had in his astral body throughout his subsequent development. This Luciferic influence means many things in human development. For our present purpose, however, it is important to emphasize that by having the Luciferic forces within themselves, human beings had within themselves a tempter to be less good than they would have been if the Luciferic influence had not come; and likewise, they were influenced to act and judge more out of all kinds of emotions, passions, and desires than they would have done if the Luciferic influence had not been at work. passions, and desires than he would have judged and acted if the Luciferic influence had not been at work. Through this influence, man's actual individuality was caused to be different, to be more devoted, so to speak, to what we may call the world of desires than would otherwise have been the case. And this has caused human beings to become much more deeply entangled in the physical world than would otherwise have been the case. Through the influence of Lucifer, human beings push themselves more into their physicality, identifying themselves more with their physicality than they would have done had there been no Luciferic influence. For if the influence of the Luciferic beings had not come, many things that can tempt human beings on earth to desire this or that would not have come. Human beings would have passed by the impressions of this or that temptation with indifference. Through Lucifer's influence, the temptations of the outer sensory world arose; human beings took these temptations into themselves. The individuality given by the I was saturated with the effects that came from the Luciferic principle. And so it came about that in their first incarnations on earth, human beings also fell prey to the first temptations of the Luciferic principle and carried these temptations with them into their later lives. This means that the way in which human beings succumbed to the temptations of the Luciferic principle became part of their karma.

If human beings had absorbed only this principle, they would have succumbed more and more to the temptations of the physical world; they would have lost, so to speak, the prospect of ever leaving this physical world. We know that the later influence—the Christ influence—counteracted the Luciferic principle and brought it back into balance, so that in the course of their development, human beings again received the means to drive this Luciferic influence out of themselves. But something else was present at the same time as the Luciferic influence. Because human beings had taken in the Luciferic influence in their astral bodies, the entire outer world they entered appeared to them quite different from what it would have appeared if they had not been exposed to the Luciferic influence. Lucifer penetrated into the inner being of human beings. With Lucifer within them, human beings saw the world around them. This clouded their view of the earthly world, and the Ahrimanic influence now mingled with their external impressions. Only in this way could Ahriman interfere and shape the outer world into an illusion, because we had already created within ourselves the predisposition to illusion, to Maya. Thus, the Ahrimanic influence that drew into the outer world surrounding human beings was the consequence of the Luciferic influence. We can say that human beings absorbed the possibility of becoming more entangled in the sensory world than they would have been without the Luciferic influence, because the Luciferic forces were once within them. In this way, however, they also created the possibility of absorbing the Ahrimanic influence with all their external perceptions. And so, as it passes through various earthly incarnations, the Luciferic influence lives in human individuality, and as a result of the Luciferic influence, the Ahrimanic influence also lives there. These two forces are constantly fighting within human individuality. And human individuality has become the theater for the battle between Lucifer and Ahriman.

Even today, with their ordinary consciousness, human beings are still exposed to the temptations of Lucifer, who works through the passions and emotions of their astral body, as well as to the temptations of Ahriman, who penetrates into human beings from outside through errors and deceptions concerning the external world. As long as human beings live in incarnation and their ideas put a stop to what Lucifer and Ahriman are doing, so that it cannot penetrate more deeply and finds an obstacle in their ideas, what human beings do remains subject to moral or intellectual judgment. As long as the human being sins against morality between birth and death by following Lucifer, or sins against logic and healthy thinking by following Ahriman, this remains a matter of ordinary conscious soul life. But when the human being passes through the gate of death, the life of imagination, which is bound to the instrument of the brain, ceases. Then another form of conscious life begins. All the things that are subject to moral or rational judgment in life between birth and death penetrate into the depths of the human being and intervene in what then, after the Kamaloka, has an organizing effect on the next existence and imprints itself on the plastic forces that now build up the threefold human body. There, errors that result from devotion to Ahriman become forces of disease that infect the human being from the etheric body, and excesses, i.e., things that are subject to moral judgment in life, become causes of disease that work more from the astral body.

This shows us how our errors from the Ahrimanic in us — and this includes conscious errors such as lies, untruths — become causes of illness if we do not remain in one incarnation but consider the effect of one incarnation on the next; and we see how Luciferic influences also become causes of illness in the same way. We can indeed say: We do not commit our errors with impunity! We carry the stamp of our errors with us into our next incarnation, but we do so out of a higher rationality than that of our ordinary life, out of the rationality that instructs us during the time between death and rebirth to make ourselves so strong and powerful that we are no longer exposed to these temptations. In this way, illnesses even become powerful educators in our lives. When we view illnesses in this way, we can literally see how either Luciferic or Ahrimanic influences are at work in the development of an illness. Once these things are understood by those who will become healers under the influence of the spiritual scientific worldview, the influence of these healers on the human organism will be much more intimate than it can be today.

In this sense, we can see right through the organism of certain forms of illness. Take, for example, an illness such as pneumonia. It is an effect in the karmic sequence that arises from the fact that during their Kamaloka period, the person affected can look back on a character that had a tendency and inclination toward sensual excesses, that had, so to speak, a need to live sensually. Let us not confuse what is now attributed to a former consciousness with what appears in the consciousness of the next incarnation. This has nothing to do with it at first. However, what the person sees during the Kamaloka period will be transformed in such a way that forces are imprinted on him for processes that overcome pneumonia. For it is precisely in overcoming pneumonia, in the self-healing that the human being strives for, that the human individuality works against the Luciferic forces, waging a veritable war against them. Therefore, overcoming pneumonia is an opportunity to cast off what was a character flaw in a previous incarnation. Thus, we see the struggle of the human being against the Luciferic forces at work in pneumonia.

The situation appears different when we observe the peculiar processes that occur in what we now call pulmonary tuberculosis, when the self-healing forces come into action, manifesting themselves by surrounding the damaging influences that arise, by connective tissue; then the whole thing is filled with calcium-salt matter, which forms solid inclusions. People can have such inclusions in their lungs, and many more people carry such things around with them than is commonly believed; for these are the people in whom a tuberculous lung has gone into healing. Where such a process has taken place, there has again been a struggle between the human inner being and what the Ahrimanic forces have wrought. It is a process of defense against the outside world, a rush against what is brought in through external materiality, in order to lead to the independence of the human being in this sense.

We have thus shown how the two principles, the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic, are ultimately at work in the course of disease. And in many respects it could be shown for this or that form of disease how one should actually distinguish between two types of disease: Ahrimanic and Luciferic diseases. If one were to take this into account, one would also be able to arrive at the right principles for providing the appropriate help to the sick. For Luciferic disease processes require quite different help than Ahrimanic ones. If today, for example in external healing methods, forces are still being applied in a fairly uncritical manner, as in modern electrotherapy, cold water treatment, or similar methods, it must be said that spiritual science can shed light on whether one method or the other should be used, by distinguishing whether one is dealing with a Luciferic or an Ahrimanic illness. No one should use electrotherapy, for example, for illnesses that originate from Lucifer; it should only be used for Ahrimanic forms of illness. For nothing that has anything to do with the working of Lucifer can ever be of help in Luciferic forms of illness, namely the principles of electricity; for these fall within the realm of Ahrimanic beings, although of course it is not only Ahrimanic beings that make use of the forces of electricity. In contrast, a very special area of the Luciferic realm is that which relates, roughly speaking, to warm and cold. Everything that has to do with the human organism becoming warmer or colder, or with external influences making it warmer or colder, belongs to the realm of Lucifer. And in everything where we have to do with warm or cold, we have a type of Luciferic disease form.

So we see how karma works in illness and how it works to overcome illness. Now it will no longer seem incomprehensible that karma also determines whether a disease is curable or incurable. If you realize that the goal, the karmic goal of illness, is to promote human development and make people more perfect, then the prerequisite is that when a person, according to the reasonableness he brings with him from the Kamaloka period upon entering a new existence, develops those healing powers which strengthen his inner being and enable him to rise higher. Let us assume that the situation is such that, in the life he has left to live, the person has the strength, thanks to his other qualities and his remaining karma, to use what he has gained through the illness to progress further in this life. Then healing has a meaning. Then healing occurs and the person has achieved what he was supposed to achieve and what was revealed by the presence of the illness. By overcoming the illness, he has enabled himself to have perfect powers where he previously had imperfect powers. If, through his karma, he is equipped with such powers and, through the favorable circumstances of his former destiny, is placed in the world in such a way that he can use his new powers and work to benefit himself and others, then healing occurs; then he winds his way through the illness.

Let us now assume that the situation is such that the person overcomes the illness and develops the healing powers and now faces a life that would place demands on him that cannot be met with the degree of perfection he has already achieved: He would achieve something through the healed illness, but it would not be possible for him to achieve so much — because his remaining karma does not allow it — that he could bring healing to others with what he has achieved. Then his deeper subconscious says: Here you have no opportunity to receive the full power of what you are actually supposed to have. You had to enter this incarnation because you had to attain the degree of perfection that you can only achieve in the physical body by overcoming an illness. You had to achieve that, but you cannot develop it further. Now you must enter circumstances where your physical body and other forces do not disturb you and where you can freely process what you have gained during your illness. — That means that such an individuality seeks death in order to process between death and new birth what it cannot process in the life between birth and death. Such a soul passes through the life between death and new birth in order to further develop its organization with the stronger forces it has gained in overcoming illness, so that it can work all the more effectively in the new life. In this way, the presence of an illness can literally bring about a kind of down payment, which is then supplemented after passing through death to what it is supposed to be.

If we look at it this way, we will have to say to ourselves: It seems entirely justified in karma that one illness ends with healing, another with death. If we look at illnesses in this way, we will gain a kind of reconciliation, a deep reconciliation with life, from a higher point of view through karma; for we will know that it lies in the law of karma that even if an illness ends in death, the human being is promoted, that even in such a case the illness has the goal of raising the human being to a higher level. Now, no one should conclude from this that we should wish for death in certain cases of illness. No one should say that, because the decision about what should happen, whether healing or incurability, is a matter for a higher reason than we can comprehend with our ordinary consciousness. With our ordinary consciousness, we must humbly remain within the world between birth and death when it comes to such questions. With our higher consciousness, however, we may place ourselves in the position of accepting even death as a gift from higher spiritual powers. But with the consciousness that is meant to help and intervene in life, we must not presume to take this higher point of view. We could easily be mistaken and would interfere in an unheard-of way in something in which we must never interfere: in the sphere of human freedom. If we can help a person to develop their self-healing powers, or by helping nature itself to bring about healing, then we must do so. And if the decision must be made as to whether a person should continue to live or whether they would be better off when death occurs, then it can never be anything other than that our help can be help in healing. If this is the case, we place it in the individual's own individuality to use their powers, and medical help can only be such that supports them in this. Then it does not interfere with human individuality. It would be quite different if we were to promote a person's incurability in such a way that they sought their further progress in another world. In that case, we would be interfering with their individuality and handing over their individuality to another sphere of influence. Then we would have imposed our will on another individuality. We must leave this decision to the individuality itself. In other words, we must do as much as possible to bring about healing. For all considerations that lead to healing come from the consciousness that is valid for our earth; all other measures would extend beyond our earthly sphere, where forces other than those that fall within our ordinary consciousness would have to intervene.

Thus we see that a correct karmic understanding of the curability and incurability of diseases leads us to do everything in our power to help people in their illness; and on the other hand, it also leads us to accept with satisfaction any other decision made from other spheres. We do not need anything else in relation to this other decision. What we need is to find a point of view that does not depress us with the incurability of a disease, as if the world had only imperfections, evil, and bad things. Karmic understanding does not paralyze our energy for healing. On the other hand, karmic understanding will also bring us back into harmony with the most difficult fate in relation to the incurability of this or that illness. Today we have seen how karmic understanding alone enables us to understand the course of an illness in the right way and to see the karmic effects from our previous lives shining through into the present. Specific examples will be presented when we discuss the next questions.

Now it will be our task to distinguish between two special forms of illness: those that come from within the human being and appear to be brought about by karma, and those illnesses that seem to strike us by chance because we are exposed to external damage, because this or that happens to us. In short, the question is: How can we arrive at a karmic understanding even when, for example, we are run over by a train? That is, how can so-called “accidental” illnesses be understood through karma?