LECTURE 6
Dear friends,
So far we have been chiefly concerned
with discovering how far a human being may deviate
in one or the other direction from what can be called
“normal”: toward a pathological condition or toward a
connection to the real spiritual world.
Today I would like to go
beyond the single earth-life to show — with the help of a rather
obvious example — how the karma that a human being carries through
repeated earth-lives must sometimes relate itself to entirely
contrasting conditions, such as, for instance, a capacity to reach
into the spiritual world and, in the same human being, a need to
reach down into the bodily, natural realm.
If physicians want to
practice not only with good external measures and with intelligence
but with their whole heart, with all their human capacities, they
need to stand within the spiritual world and look at this physical
world from a spiritual point of view. The human being journeys
through successive earth-lives; causes reach over spiritually from
one earth-life and evoke consequences in a later one. Therefore karma
cannot remain a mere word to us. We must learn how to relate our
healing activity to karma. For this, we must first be fully aware of
how karma works in relation to pathological conditions and also to
visionary capacities.
If priests want to
enter into their parishioners' life situations in the right way, if
they want to be a real pastor to the souls in their care, they also
need to appreciate the spiritual significance of what confronts a
human being in everyday life on this earth. Only then will they be
able to care for humanity properly from the standpoint of the
spirit.
In this connection we
should consider something for a moment that some with a modern, more
“enlightened” point of view may regard with derision. If
we, too, presumed to take such an attitude, our descendants would
surely magnify it a hundred-fold in their estimation of us! For they
will view us in future centuries as anyone living today in our
so-called scientific culture views our ancestors. You will see at
once what I mean.
In the course of human
evolution a complete reversal has taken place in the conception of
illness. This became particularly obvious at the end of the
nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. If you go back two
thousand years or so to the early times of the Old Testament, you
find a universal conviction that illness comes from sinfulness, that
illness has its original spiritual cause in sin. This was a serious
belief. There had to be a spiritual error or failure somewhere as the
true cause when a physical illness appeared. This idea was carried
further. It was believed of a person in whom the spiritual fault lay
causing the illness, that the individual harbored some elemental
spiritual force that did not belong there, that somehow the person
was “possessed.” In those times all illness signified
that a person was “possessed” by some spiritual entity as
the consequence of spiritual error or fault. Therapy was created
accordingly. It was based on finding the means to bring out of the
ill person the alien elemental spirituality that had entered through
a spiritual offense. Basically this was the belief that one does not
understand an illness unless one knows its cause.
Now consider the
belief that came later, pronouncing exactly the opposite view —
before psychoanalysis intervened in such a frightfully dilettantish
fashion. The new belief said that every sin can be traced to illness.
People were convinced of it. If there was a criminal, a
“sinner” somewhere (the concept “sin” was
defined rather superficially, according to the legal code) they saw
to it that in some way or other they got hold of the brain after
death, and could thus examine the physical organism. They were
looking for the defects. And they did find defects in many instances.
In this respect they have advanced quite a little. Clever,
well-trained scientists have adopted the view that a person who has a
perfect physical organism doesn't sin. A person sins if there is some
bodily defect. Sin comes from disease. That's how evolution goes
— not in a straight line but by way of opposites. And the
people who have now reached this last view (not everyone today admits
to it, but it is often fundamental even for those who do not totally
subscribe to it) look back with pity to olden times when it was
believed that illness comes from sin. For they know they themselves
are right, that sin comes from illness. And they know with absolute
certainty that in the sick person there is some material process or
other that they have to combat, have to neutralize, have to get out
of the organism. In earlier times the healers worked to remove a host
of elemental spirits. To someone who sees the matter from a broader
point of view there is really not very much difference. From an inner
standpoint there is no great difference between the health spas that
materialistic medicine considers correct and Lourdes. In the latter a
person is cured through religious beliefs, in the former through
materialistic beliefs. These things must simply be looked at without
prejudice.
Influenced by such
shortsighted ideas, one certainly will not perceive real connections.
Therefore I would like to describe a concrete case. It should reveal
to you the deeper connections to be found in this matter of human
health. A certain person lived in the nineteenth century. I'll speak
of him presently as he was in the nineteenth century, but first I
want to take you back to one of his earlier incarnations that had
important consequences for his life in the nineteenth century. This
person was incarnated in a southeastern region of Asia where the
people were extraordinarily fond of animals. You know that oriental
teachings include a great reverence and love for animals; they extend
what they call love of humanity and love of things, particularly to
love of animals. In ancient times it was natural for people in this
region to love animals intensely and to take very good care of them.
But the man of whom I am speaking was no friend of animals. There in
the midst of an animal-loving people was a man who treated them
cruelly. Even as a boy he tormented them, he was mean to them; in
later life he tortured domestic animals in every possible way to an
incredible degree. This aroused violent anger in the people among
whom he lived. He also experienced a deep conflict between this
compulsive mania (today, in materialistic terms, we would call it
perversion of the will) and on the other hand the spiritual teachings
of the people. He took these up with great fervor. He was able to
relate himself to them completely; he had a fine sense for everything
the religion of that area taught. But he became involved in violent
conflicts with the most religious individuals around him because of
his torture of animals. It was especially the animals in his own
house that he tortured, first among his relatives, and later when he
became a kind of farmhand. Orientals lavish particularly good care on
domestic animals, considering them as part of the family. These were
the ones he tortured most shockingly.
This man lived again
in our age, in the first half of the nineteenth century, and in this
incarnation (which in a wider sense belongs to our own time) he was
born as an extremely fearful person, so that he chained dogs to
himself. One could say this was now a symptom of illness, this
abnormal relation to animals. It did have an aspect of disease about
it through the fact that he did not develop any special love for the
dogs, only a feeling that he had to have them near him. It is clearly
fantastic, the way he related himself to them. It reveals an inner
karmic compulsion from an earlier life.
At the same time in
this incarnation the man is extremely talented, carrying over from
his earlier life everything he had experienced of the oriental
spiritual teachings, as well as his own religious devotion. This is
not just a feeling in him: it becomes his life practice. In the
course of this life he develops not only an astonishing capacity for
spiritual fantasy, but the ability to put into poetic form correct
visionary images that come to him in a matter-of-fact way. His poetry
is about ordinary physical human life into which elemental spiritual
beings constantly play. He is a distinguished poet. Moreover one may
truly say he is the dramatist whom we Europeans would compare most
seriously with Shakespeare. He is Ferdinand Raimund
[Note 7]
— with his fantastic personality, his giant talent —
whose dramatic poems show how he has brought from earlier
incarnations his ability to portray spiritual things, to put
spiritual happenings into human life. One need only look at
Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind
(“The King of the Alps and the Misanthrope”)
to be able to liken him to Shakespeare. First of
all, he is an important actor; this comes from his impulse to bring
both trivialities and non-trivialities from spiritual realms to the
stage. On the stage he is an incomparable actor, full of humor; in
life he is completely overwhelmed by the consequences of the animal
torture that he formerly perpetrated. Genius and a pathological
condition are thoroughly mixed in him: the genius impelling him to
create with soul-spiritual dramatic instinct and Shakespearean power,
the pathological condition impelling him to inject a fantastic
element into his external life.
Now we must look at a
singular trait in Raimund. The animal torture had been a
“necessity” to him in that earlier incarnation; he
experienced a kind of lust, he did it for secret pleasure. During
that earth-life he was not aware it was bad. He came to that
realization only after he went through the gate of death. Now the
experience one has when one goes through the gate of death and then
further into the life between death and a new birth is in the
subsequent life expressed foremost (in a wide sense) in the head
organization. There lies the impulse one brings with one as talent.
This, Raimund brought with him in rich amount. But here also
something is working that appears in the rhythmic system,
particularly the upper rhythmic or respiratory system. For the human
being is built like this (see drawing): metabolic-limb system,
rhythmic system, nerve-sense system. What comes from an earlier
earth-life works over into the nerve-sense system of the new life;
what comes from the time between death and a new birth works over
into the rhythmic system; and what comes from the new earth-life
works alone in the metabolic-limb sytem.
| Diagram 4 Click image for large view | |
So all that this
individual who is now Ferdinand Raimund experienced of bitter
remorse, of deeply crushing insight was working continually after
that earlier incarnation, in his life between death and a new birth,
affecting his coming rhythmic system. It worked right into the
physical body. For in the physical organization of the head we have
the after-effect of the previous earth-life; in the physical
organization of the rhythmic system we have the after-effect of the
life between death and a new birth. These facts are obvious when one
studies embryology even externally.
In Raimund's case, in
his breathing system, the upper rhythmic system, we see working in
him all the bitter remorse and insight he had experienced when he
went through the gate of death from that previous earth-life. This
experience led inevitably to breathing irregularities in this life,
to a meager intake of oxygen and a strong saturation of carbon
dioxide. Breathing irregularities — from a physical point of
view — bring on a variety of states of anxiety; they can be the
carriers of elemental beings of anxiety. The breathing irregularities
do not allow the proper balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the
breathing process, and this draws in anxiety elementals. You can see
all this in
The King of the Alps and the Misanthrope.
It was well developed in Raimund; he was predisposed to a breathing
system that would be a carrier for anxiety elementals.
Such elemental beings
are not simply anxiety elementals. If at the same time there is
something such as Raimund had in his head system from earlier
earth-lives, namely, soul-spiritual ideas — which make his
dramas so interesting — one sees that the presence of these
anxiety demons causes karma to develop in a very definite direction.
One sees clearly how they push in an unhealthy way to bring about
karmic effects. They stream into fanciful imaginations that even
achieve visionary content — and Raimund's dramas are built on
such content. They stream into his visionary activity; they also
impel him to develop a fantastic element in his daily life. In this
way a karmic stream pushes through his life, a tremendous gift of
genius that has to come to expression. One branch of the stream flows
in a special kind of spiritual creation. The other branch flows
parallel in a kind of life-fantasy that is not expressed externally
but is directed inward. For it lies in the rhythmic system, which is
of course half inward, but which also works in the lower organs in
such a way that it affects a person's external life, and then in turn
influences the inner life again. So Raimund's genius is accompanied
by a truly pathological tendency. And this pathological tendency,
which expresses itself through the anxiety demons, is the vehicle for
the fulfillment of his karma.
One can see Raimund's
karma quite clearly. He has to keep a dog. He is a fantastic person.
He does what other men wouldn't do. One can understand that. One can
even sympathize with that. Indeed when I remember how some of our
worthy citizens have gorged themselves at court banquets when they
were being given distinguished titles, I have a certain sympathy for
Raimund, with his wry humor as he sits on the floor and eats with the
dog out of the dog's bowl. You see how karma plays in from the animal
torture of his earlier incarnation. You see how this deed comes from
the animal torture and the remorse after death and is done as a
fantastic atonement. But the atonement has to be still more severe.
Immediately after this, the anxiety demons appear and take part in
the playing-out of his karma. Raimund becomes obsessed by the
thought: the dog has rabies, I have been eating with him, now I am
infected! Raimund is terrified. While at other moments he can do the
most talented things on the stage, the moment he withdraws from his
external life he succumbs to the compulsive fear that he is infected
with rabies.
Now he undertakes a
journey with a friend. They go from Vienna to Salzburg, and there the
fear of madness so overwhelms him that he must return at once to
Vienna to get treatment. It is a tormenting journey both for him and
for the friend. One sees his pathological state always following at
the heels of his genius. For now he is well taken care of: people are
delighted to entertain Ferdinand Raimund. Gradually he abandons the
rabies idea. Something like a cure takes place through life itself,
through pleasure, through the kindness he receives on every side
— which he doesn't really want to accept because he is still a
hypochondriac. And the anxiety demons torment him; if not with one
trouble, then with another. So he is always swinging back and forth
between Raimund the humorist and Raimund the hypochondriac. But at
least he has given up the idea that he might go mad. That fear had
obsessed him for years. Even so, he is still bound to animals. After
ten years he gets another dog, and now see what happens: he plays
with the dog and the dog really bites him. Again the thought of it
overpowers him. He is standing there, he is bitten by the dog, and
the dog has rabies! (Actually, it was established later that the dog
did have rabies, but it was a very light case.) Now Raimund travels
to Pottenstein, shoots himself in the head; the bullet lodges in the
posterior cavity, far back. It can't be operated on. Raimund dies
from the shot after three days.
You see how Raimund
had freed himself from the first obsession, but karma continued to
work. This is an example of karma working itself out completely, in a
remarkable way. For only think! Subjectively, it is not precisely a
suicide, for Raimund could not be called a fully responsible
individual. Objectively, it is also not precisely a suicide, for if
they had been able in those days to operate on that part of the head,
Raimund would have been saved. At that time the operation was not
possible and they had to leave the bullet in the head, so that after
three days death was inevitable. So it is not a pure suicide, either
subjectively or objectively. Thus one cannot say there will be
consequences in the karma because of suicide. The karma does not
continue: it was balanced out by what Raimund experienced in this
incarnation up to his death, up to the way his suicidal intention was
carried out. One sees clearly how karma from his earlier incarnation
rises up and strikes him in this incarnation. One sees it reach
across the span of time to strike with strength.
So now, first, we have
seen that there are individuals whose ego, astral body, and etheric
body develop, either suddenly or by stages, in such a way that they
break into the spiritual world with a visionary capacity: St. Teresa,
Mechthild of Magdeburg, and many others. There are such individuals
who show an abnormality in one direction, the direction of spiritual
awareness. They have been given some karmic gift — which we are
only considering from the aspect of this particular earth-life. With
these individuals we do not need to enter into karmic details.
Naturally it is a fulfillment of karma. But one can understand the
case from a single earth-life.
Then there are the
individuals turned in the other direction. They develop abnormally in
their physical-etheric organism; they sink down into their physical
body and become pathological cases, as I showed you, in three stages.
Their pathological condition is induced by their karma. But one only
needs to look at the general picture. With such personalities as St.
Teresa the individual became especially strong in earlier
earth-lives, while in the pathological cases the individual became
especially weak, causing the higher being to be drawn down into the
lower organism. Again one needs only to look at a few general
characteristics of an individual, one need not examine the karma in
detail.
But now in Ferdinand
Raimund we have an unusual personality. He developed not only in the
visionary direction but in the opposite direction also, and at the
same time. We have the two opposites constantly pitted against each
other throughout his life. Both the genius and the psychopath are in
his personality; they play into each other, wonderfully and
tragically. Thus this case obliges us to study the concrete details
of his karma. We have to perceive how his karma works to create the
two extremes, how it holds them apart, sometimes letting them work
into each other. You will find countless places in Raimund's dramas
where you can say his spiritual vision is active and at the same time
something is working in from the anxiety demons. Sometimes you see it
in the structure of the drama itself.
If we study human
character in this way, we come inevitably to a consideration of
karma. And we must see on the one hand the one-sidedness of that
abstract teaching from certain ancient streams of civilization
— namely, that illness comes from sin — which means that
only abnormal spirituality is active in the human being. Naturally
certain ideas can be expressed in this abstract way, but they remain
theories even if one treats people in accordance with them. The
opposite assertion is just as abstract and just as one-sided: that
sin comes from illness, and that there are physical substances and
processes in some people to be combated. First of all we have to
investigate the concrete details of the total human organism, how its
upper members relate to each other, whether they are separated from
each other, whether they distance themselves from the lower members.
Likewise, we must be able to see how karma is working in such an
interplay of genius and pathology as was the case with Raimund. Those
who achieve an understanding of these things will find opportunities
in life to add something more to what they are already accomplishing
in the work of physical healing, to add words that will make the
healing process complete. They will reach the moment when they are no
longer bound merely to a physical healing process, seeking the why
and the wherefore of physical healing alone, for they will perceive
how necessary it is in many cases to add a moral dimension to it.
This does not mean one becomes sentimental and goes calling on a
patient with all kinds of trifling consolations. Usually such things
have little effect. Sick people haven't much energy left for weepy
callers — or for hearty jollities either! They do have an
amazing amount of energy left for what lies in natural human
relations, not the “what” of words but the
“how” One finds a way instinctively in such situations if
one is able to express a view of the world and of life in a way that
relates them to spiritual connections — as it can if one takes
seriously such examples as I have described.
Spiritual activity
cannot consist of talk, much less of religious tirades. Spiritual
work must relate to facts. If it takes hold of facts, then it will be
useful first of all to make the necessary connections with human
beings. Then it can be used for healthy people and sick people. One
will develop an instinct for orienting oneself to any illness with
this or with that symptom. You will see that this extends to physical
illnesses as well. But we must first open up the way to see that
these things apply to physical illnesses. You will come to this if
you study various examples of them, also the biographies of many
geniuses. But not from the standpoint of that arch-philistine
Lombroso! What is so disturbing about Lombroso's theory — his
own great genius has to be acknowledged — is the fact that he
is a thorough philistine, that on every page you read commonplace
opinions. Science has fallen to that level! If one refuses to accept
assertions from that kind of standpoint, if one directs one's
activity from a really thoughtful perception of the world —
that is, of physical and spiritual life — then if one needs to
offer comfort to a sick person, one will offer the comfort of
religion with a true spiritual aura. But not without clear
understanding behind it. Whether one gives communion to sick people
in the right way, so that they begin to improve, so that during their
convalescence their soul is in no way injured, depends upon one's
having an understanding for these things.
For certain
convalescents, their physical healing will not be complete without
the sacrament of communion, so that what had been brought into
disarray in their karma can be put in order again. If one does not
know that, one cannot carry it into the aura of the sacrament. But if
physicians also understand these things, if they recognize karma
working through the illness while keeping professional command of the
healing process, they will be able to relate themselves to it in the
right way. They must observe these things with their whole being from
a broad worldview. Then something objective will happen for them, if
they work consciously with their whole soul to help the karmic
processes developing in the patient. Their healing mission will be
the other half of divine service; it will have a religious dimension.
They will learn to regard themselves as partners of the priests,
standing beside the priests and administering the other half of the
divine service. Healing then becomes a divine service. Things that
the materialistic world conception has turned into nature worship
— to dancing around the golden calf — these things must
be returned and transformed to a divine service, through proper
anthroposophical understanding. To transform everything in life and
art and religion into the service of God: that will be the ultimate
task of a comprehensive pastoral medicine that can be practiced
within the anthroposophical movement. But a beginning must be made.
It must be initiated here; at least the indications must be given for
it to those who will carry the impulse forward, out of spiritual
foundations, for the two sides of a true divine service.
That is why pastoral
medicine is first being presented to priests and physicians within
the anthroposophical movement. Those individuals will then find
possibilities, with their knowledge of nature and spirit, to pursue
pastoral medicine further. But they will also be able to use it to
penetrate the specific regions of life that lie within their
mission.
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