Lecture VI
Illness and Death
Berlin 13th December, 1906
Today's subject
must obviously concern everyone, for illness and death enters
the lives of all; usually it is unbidden and often in a way
that is upsetting and even frightening. Death is indeed
life's greatest riddle, so much so that the individual who
could solve it would have solved also the other great riddle,
that of life itself.
It is said that
death is a riddle that no one ever has, or ever will solve.
People who speak like that have no notion of the arrogance
the words imply, nor of the fact that a solution to the
riddle does exist, but a solution they fail to
understand.
As we are
dealing with a far-reaching and important subject, I ask you
to bear especially in mind that all we can do is to attempt
to answer the specific question, How can illness and death be
understood? It is not possible to go into special cases of
illness and health; we must confine ourselves to the question
of how understanding can be reached concerning these two most
important riddles of existence.
The well-known
words of Saint Paul: “The wages of sin are
death,” were for centuries regarded as an answer, a
solution to the question concerning death. Nowadays these
words have lost their meaning for most educated people.
Modern people are unable to see how sin, which belongs to the
sphere of morality and is connected with human behavior, can
have anything to do with a physical fact such as death. Nor
do we see any connection with illness.
Furthermore,
the word “sin” is today used in a narrower, more
materialistic sense. At the time of Saint Paul, the word was
not taken to refer to ordinary failings or shortcomings, nor
to anything extreme. The word sin was regarded as being
connected with actions done for egoistic or selfish reasons,
in contrast to impartial, objective actions. Here we must
bear in mind that egoism and selfishness indicate that a
person's “I” has reached a stage of independence
and self-consciousness. These are aspects that must be taken
into account if we are to understand the mind of a spirit
such as that of Saint Paul.
Those who wish
to reach a deeper understanding of the Old and New
Testaments, who strive to grasp their deeper aspects, will be
aware of a definite, one might say instinctive, philosophic
current that runs through these records. It can be summed up
by saying: All living creatures, in all realms of nature,
strive towards a particular goal. Those belonging to lower
species are still indifferent to pleasure and pain, joy and
sorrow, but we find that as life reaches higher levels things
change. Those who shudder at the idea of teleology must
realize that we are dealing with facts, not putting forward a
theory. Every living being, at all levels including that of
human beings, strives towards a specific target, a summit for
all living creatures: the attainment of individual
consciousness.
The initiates
from whom the Old and New Testaments originated looked down
to the animal kingdom and saw how all striving is directed
towards the eventual attainment of an independent personality
endowed with its own inclinations, and its own impulses to
action. They also saw that to the independent personality
belonged the possibility of egoistic selfish behavior.
A thinker like
Paul would say: “If a personality capable of egoistic
deeds dwells in a body, then that body is of necessity
mortal. A soul possessing independence, self-consciousness,
and consequently egoism would never be able to inhabit an
immortal body.” The two go together: self-conscious
personality with one-sidedly developed impulses, and a mortal
body. This is what in the Bible is termed “sin,”
and what Paul defines as: “The wages of sin are
death.” You will realize that not only this, but also
other sayings in the Bible must be modified to be understood.
In the course of centuries their meaning has changed,
sometimes to the opposite. However, the modification must not
alter the original meaning; we must endeavor to transform the
meaning given by modern theology into the original one. It
will then be discovered that often the issue concerned is not
only far more profound than thought at first sight, but also
can be readily understood even today. This explanation is
necessary in order to see things in the right
perspective.
Throughout the
ages, thinkers searching for a world conception have
concerned themselves with the riddle of death — a
riddle to which during thousands of years the most varied
solutions have been offered. We cannot go into a historical
survey of these solutions; it must suffice to mention just
two philosophers, in order to show that contemporary thinkers
have nothing substantial to contribute to the issue
either.
Take for
example a thinker like Schopenhauer. Those who have read this
sentence will be acquainted with his pessimistic outlook:
“Life is a disagreeable affair; I shall spend mine
pondering it.” And they will realize that he could not
arrive at any other conclusion than: “Basically death
is the consolation for life, and life the consolation for
death; for life is miserable; it can be endured only because
of the knowledge that death puts an end to it. On the other
hand, if one fears death, it is a consolation to know that
life is no better, that nothing is lost by dying.” That
is Schopenhauer's pessimistic view. He makes the Earth-Spirit
say: “If new life is continuously to arise, then I need
space.” At least Schopenhauer was aware that, as life
forever brings forth new life, the old must die to provide
new space. But as you can see, he provides nothing of
significance to the problem of death; what he says elsewhere
on the subject only reflects the same view.
In his last
book Eduard von Hartmann concerns himself with the riddle of
death. He says: “When we consider the most highly
evolved being, man, we find that after one or two generations
he no longer understands the world. Once a person is old he
no longer understands the young. That is why the old must die
and the new continuously arrive.” Thus, here again,
nothing is said that throws light on the riddle of death.
Anthroposophy,
or spiritual science, would wish to contribute to present-day
world views what it has to say about the cause of illness and
death. However, it must first be made clear that, unlike
other sciences, spiritual science cannot speak in such an
easy manner; it cannot treat every subject alike. Today's
natural scientists do not understand that when illness and
death are considered, a distinction must be made between
humans and animals. In fact, if today's lecture is to be
comprehensible, we must restrict it to that which applies to
humans. Few of the things said today will apply to either the
animal or vegetable kingdom. This is because the beings of
the various kingdoms do not have certain abstract
similarities; each kingdom has its own specific
characteristic. In the main we shall speak only of human
beings; anything else will be brought up merely for the sake
of clarification.
For an
understanding of illness and death in relation to human
beings, it is important to bear in mind that, as spiritual
science explains, a person is an extremely complex being. An
individual's nature can only be understood on the basis of
these following four members: first, the externally visible,
physical body; second, the ether or life body; third, the
astral body; and fourth, the “I,” or the center
of the being. We must recognize that the forces and
substances of the physical body are the same as those found
in the physical world outside, and further that the ether
body, which we have in common with the vegetable kingdom,
contains the forces that call the physical substances to
life. The astral body, which we have in common with the
animal kingdom, is the bearer of the life of feelings,
craving, pleasure and pain, joys and sorrows. The
“I” makes human beings the crown of creation, for
that an individual alone possesses.
When we
consider a person's physical organism, we must be aware of
the fact that within it the other three members are at work;
they are the architects and contain the formative forces. The
physical principle works on the physical organism, but only
up to a point; in certain areas it is mainly the ether body
that is at work, in others the astral body, and in yet others
the “I.” From the viewpoint of spiritual science,
the physical human being proper consists of bones and
muscles, that is, of those organs that support and make him a
firm structure so that he can walk about on the earth. It is,
strictly speaking, only these organs that come into being
wholly through the physical principle. However, to them must
be added the organs that are comparable to physical
instruments — the senses. The eye functions like a
camera obscura, the ear like a complex musical instrument.
What is significant is that these organs are built up by the
first principle, whereas all the organs connected with
growth, propagation and digestion are built not only by the
physical principle, but also by the ether or life body.
Only the organs
built according to physical laws are sustained by the
physical principle; the processes of digestion, propagation
and growth are sustained by the etheric principle. The astral
body is the creator of the whole nervous system, right up to
the brain, and also of the spinal cord and nerve fibers.
Finally, the "I" is the architect of the blood circulation.
In contemplating the human organism from the
spiritual-scientific viewpoint, you will realize that the
four members are in reality four entities that are completely
different from one another. These entities have merged, and
work together within human beings right down into the
externally visible aspect of a person's organism. The four
members of a person's being have different values. We shall
understand their significance when we investigate how human
development is dependent upon each of them.
Today we shall
speak, mainly from the physiological viewpoint, about the
work the physical principle accomplishes on a person's
organism between birth and the change of teeth. During this
period, the physical principle works on the physical body,
just as before birth the forces and substances of the
maternal organism work on the embryo. From the age of seven
till puberty it is mainly the etheric principle that works on
the physical body; after puberty it is mainly the forces of
the astral body that are at work. Thus, we must think of the
human embryo being enveloped by the maternal body up to the
moment of birth; at that point the maternal body is, as it
were, pushed aside; the senses are freed; the outer world
begins to influence the human organism. Then at the age of
seven another enveloping sheath is pushed aside. The
development of an individual's being can only be understood
when we recognize that at the change of teeth something
happens spiritually that is similar to what happens
physically at birth. The human being is truly born a second
time about the seventh year, for the ether body is born and
can begin to work independently, just as was the case with
the physical body at its birth. The maternal body acts
physically on the embryo before birth; up to the change of
teeth the spiritual forces of the ether world act on the
human ether body. At about the seventh year they are pushed
aside, as was the maternal body at physical birth. Up to the
seventh year the ether body remains latent within the
physical body. At the time of the change of teeth the
situation in regard to the ether body is comparable to a
piece of wood being ignited. Up till then it was tied to the
physical body; now it is freed and can act independently. The
ether body's release is announced by the change of teeth.
Those with deeper insight into human development recognize
that the change of teeth is a significant event. Up to the
age of seven the physical principle is at work unfettered,
while the etheric and astral principles are still latent,
that is, not yet born from their spiritual sheaths.
Up to the age
of seven the human being displays a number of inherited
factors. These are not built up by his own principles, but
are derived from ancestors. The milk teeth belong to this
category. Only the second teeth are produced by the child's
own physical principle, whose particular task is to build up
what constitutes the body's firm support. Before the physical
principle produces the second teeth, which are the hardest
part of the body's supporting structure and the culmination
of its work — it works within the bodily nature, while
the ether body, the principle of growth, is still latent.
Once the
physical principle has finished its work, the ether body is
freed and works on the physical organs up to puberty. At this
time another covering, the external astral sheath, is thrust
aside as was the maternal body at physical birth. Thus, at
puberty the human being is born for the third time when the
astral body is freed. At this stage the forces of the ether
body culminate their creative activity by producing sexual
maturity in the organs connected with propagation. In the
seventh year the physical principle culminates its activity
by producing the teeth as the last hard structure, and in the
ether body the principle of growth is freed. Correspondingly,
the moment the astral principle is freed, it produces the
greatest concentration of urges and cravings, that is,
expression of life insofar as it is bound up with the
physical nature. As the physical principle is concentrated in
the formation of the second teeth, so is the principle of
growth concentrated in bringing about sexual maturity. This
sets free the astral body, the sheath of the “I,”
which then begins its work on the astral body.
A cultivated
person does not follow his urges and passions blindly; he has
purified and transformed them into moral feelings and ethical
ideals. When we compare a person with a savage, we realize
that a Johann von Schiller,
[
Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), a leading figure in
German literature, was a playwright, poet, and essayist.
]
a Francis of Assisi
[
Francis of Assisi, Saint (c. 1181–1226) was an Italian
Roman Catholic mystic and founder of the Franciscan Order of Monks.
]
or indeed the average civilized person has purified and transformed,
through his “I,” these urges and cravings.
Consequently the astral body consists of two parts, one that
contains the original tendencies and another created by the
“I.” We can only understand the work of the
“I” on the basis of reincarnation; we must
recognize that we are subject to repeated lives on earth,
which means that when we are born we bring with ourselves the
fruits, the outcome of earlier lives. These fruits are
contained in four separate bodies as the measure of energy
and forces available to a person in life. Thanks to what a
person has attained already, one person will be born with
strong energy and forces with which to work on the astral
body, while another will soon exhaust what is available to
him.
By
investigating clairvoyantly how the “I”
spontaneously begins to work on the astral body, controlling
urges and cravings, and by estimating the measure of energy
the “I” has brought with it, it is possible to
say for how long the “I” will be able to carry
out its work. After puberty, every human being has available
a measure of energy according to which one can estimate when
he will have transformed in his astral body all that is
possible for him in this life. The life force a person
manages to purify and transform in his inner nature sustains
itself. As long as it lasts, a person exists at the expense
of what is self-sustaining in the astral body. Once it is
exhausted, an individual loses the inclination to transform
his cravings further; in short, a person lacks the energy to
work on the self. This is when the thread of life begins to
wear out, as of necessity it must in proportion to the
measure allotted each human being. It is the time when the
astral body must derive its forces from the principle of life
that is nearest, that is, from the ether body. The astral
body now lives at the expense of the forces stored in the
ether body. This comes to expression as a gradual loss of
memory and creative imagination.
That the ether
body is the bearer of creative imagination and memory, and
also of everything that can be termed fortitude and
confidence in life, has often been explained. When these
things attain a permanent character, they become a feature of
the ether body. But they are drawn out by the astral body now
that it exists at the expense of the ether body. When
everything the ether body can give is exhausted, the astral
body begins to consume the creative forces of the physical
body. When these are used up, the life of the physical body
dwindles, the body hardens, and the pulse slows down. Thus,
at the end, the astral body lives at the expense of the
physical body, depriving it of its forces. It can no longer
be maintained by the physical principle.
If the astral
body is to become free so that it can emerge and participate
in the life and work of the “I,” it must, when
its allotted task is over in the later part of life,
necessarily consume the sheaths it built up. Thus, is
individual life created out of the “I.”
What takes
place can be compared with what happens when a piece of wood
is set alight. Wood could not give birth to fire if it were
differently constituted. A flame leaps from the wood,
consuming it. The nature of the flame is to free itself and
in so doing consume the foundation that gave it existence.
The astral body is born three times in this way, each time
consuming its own foundation as the flame consumes the wood.
What gives individual life the possibility of existence is
the fact that it absorbs its own foundation. The root of
individual life is death; no individual conscious life could
exist if there were no death. Death can only be understood by
seeking and recognizing its origin; and life by recognizing
its relation to death. The origin of illness can be
discovered through a similar approach, which will also throw
more light an that of death. Every illness destroys life to
some degree. But what exactly is illness?
To understand
illness we must look at the way human beings are related to
the surrounding world of nature. Let us look at what takes
place between a person as a living being and the rest of the
natural world. With every breath, sound, light, and morsel of
food that a person absorbs, he enters into a reciprocal
relationship with nature. If you look at the matter more
closely, you will realize, even without spiritual sight, that
what exists in the outer world actually builds up the
physical organs and causes the senses to function. When
certain animals wandered into caves and stayed there, their
eyes in time atrophied. The eye, a sense predisposed to
light, cannot exist without light; conversely, only where
there is light can this sense develop. Hence Goethe could say
that the eye is created by the light, for the light.
Naturally, the physical body is built up according to what
might be designated as the inner architect, but the external
substances are the material this architect uses.
Once this is
fully recognized, we see the various forces and substances in
a different light in relation to human beings. The genuine
mystic, with his deeper insight, can tell us much in this
respect. Paracelsus,
[
Paracelsus (1493–1541) was a Swiss alchemist and physician.
]
for example, saw the whole external world as an
extended human organism, and a person's being as an extract
of that world. According to Paracelsus, one can say, when
looking at a plant: This plant is composed according to
certain laws; in a person's healthy or sick organism
something exists to which the plant corresponds. Thus,
Paracelsus calls a patient suffering from cholera an
“arsenicus,” because he saw arsenic as the remedy
for cholera. There exists in nature something that relates to
every human organ. If we could extract an essence of the
whole natural world and give it human form, the result would
be a human being. The letters that spell MAN are, as it were,
spread throughout the whole of nature. This indicates how
nature acts upon a human being and why he must construct his
being from the materials of nature. Basically, everything
absorbed by our life processes to build up the organism
originated in external nature. When we understand the secret
of how the external forces and substances are called to life,
we shall also understand illness.
Nowadays the
educated person finds difficulty in recognizing that many
modern ideas concerned with medicine are extremely vague. If
someone with knowledge of natural remedies mentions the word
"poison," it immediately stirs up all kinds of suppositions.
But what is a poison? What is an abnormal effect on the human
organism? Whatever is introduced into the human organism acts
according to natural laws; that anyone should think it could
act otherwise is incomprehensible. But what is a poison?
Water, if taken by the bucketful all at once, is a strong
poison. What is today looked upon as poison could have most
beneficial effects if rightly administered. It always depends
on the quantity and the circumstances under which a substance
is administered. Nothing, as such, is a poison.
A tribe in
Africa uses a certain species of dog for hunting; in the same
region there is a fly whose venom is deadly to the dogs they
sting. The savages living by the Sambesi River have found a
remedy for these stings. They take the bitches in pup to an
area where there is an abundance of tsetse flies and let them
be bitten. The tribe knows how to arrange matters so that the
bitches do not die before the pups arrive. The pups born in
this way are immune to the tsetse fly's sting and can be used
for hunting.
This
illustrates an important fact for understanding the element
of life. When a poison is taken up into the process of life,
just where a descending line passes over into an ascending
one, the poison becomes an integral part of the organism.
What is absorbed in this way not only strengthens but
protects the organism.
Spiritual
investigation shows that such a process is involved in the
building up of the human organism. If you like, we might
express it by saying that pure substances, which were
originally poisonous, form the human organism; today's
foodstuff can be absorbed because, through recurrent
processes similar to the one described, we have become immune
to their harmful effects. The more of such substances we have
incorporated, the stronger we are. Rejecting external
substances only makes us weak.
In regions where medicine is still based on occult knowledge,
the healer even enlists his own body in the quest for
remedies. For example, there are cures where he administers
to himself the venom of a certain species of snake, in order
to make his saliva into a remedy against their bite. He
incorporates the poison into his own organism, thus making
himself the bearer of healing forces. He becomes strong
himself and makes others strong to withstand that particular
venom.
The organism
must necessarily incorporate what is outside in nature. All
the harmless substances contained in the body have become so
through the process indicated. However, as human beings are
continuously exposed to substances that could become harmful,
the possibility always exists that their effects go beyond
the limit, and danger arises. This will depend upon whether
the ether body is capable of absorbing the substance or not.
If the organism is strong enough to absorb such a substance
immediately, its tolerance greatly increases. We cannot avoid
illness if we wish to be healthy. The possibility to gain
sufficient strength to withstand harmful influences depends
upon our capacity to become ill. Thus, health is conditioned
by illness. The outcome, the gift bestowed upon us by
illness, is greater strength. When the illness is overcome,
the fruit of the experience is immunity to the illness, and
this is retained even after death.
Whoever ponders
these things will gain an understanding of illness and death.
If we wish to have strength and health, we must accept into
the bargain the preliminary condition of illness. To attain
strength we must absorb weakness and transform it into
strength. If this is grasped in a living way, illness and
death become comprehensible. It is this comprehension
spiritual science wishes to bring to humanity. Many will see
it as something that speaks only to the intellect, but if the
intellect has once fully grasped all that is implied, it will
bring about an inner mood of deep accord. Comprehension of
these things becomes wisdom of life.
You may well
have heard it said that anthroposophical truths, derived as
they are from spiritual knowledge, can be dangerous! We have
plenty of opponents who maintain that anthroposophy is a
poison and is harmful. Well, anthroposophists and
esotericists themselves know that anthroposophy can be
harmful because, in order to make human beings strong, it
must be absorbed and digested. Anthroposophy is not something
one can argue about; it acts as a spiritual power of healing,
and its truths will be confirmed by life itself.
Spiritual
science knows that the spirit creates the physical;
therefore, when spiritual forces work upon the ether body,
they have a health-giving effect also an the physical body.
If our concepts and ideas about the world and life are sound,
these healthy thoughts will act as a powerful force of
healing. Anthroposophical truths can be harmful only to
natures made weak by materialism and naturalism; when they
can be absorbed and digested they make a person strong. Only
when that happens can anthroposophy fulfill its task.
Goethe answered
the question concerning life and death beautifully when he
said: “Everything in nature is life; she only invented
death to have more life.” One could add that, as well
as death, nature also invented illness in order to produce
strong health. Furthermore, she had to endow wisdom with
apparently harmful effects to make it a powerful force of
healing.
The
anthroposophical world movement differs from other movements
that may provide logical proofs to be argued and debated.
Anthroposophy does not wish to be something that can be
proved simply through logical arguments. It wishes to provide
both spiritual and bodily health. Living proof of its truth
will be increasingly discovered the more it is seen to
enhance life, transforming discontentment into contentment.
Spiritual science is like the so-called poison which, when
transformed, fructifies life and becomes a source of healing.
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