The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. The Obsession with Illness in the Light of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] This discussion will focus on those forms of illness and symptoms that are connected to our inner life and can only be truly understood in the light of spiritual science. Many symptoms of illness stem from an unhealthy inner life.

[ 2 ] (An example of a man and a woman whom Dr. Steiner once met on a train. The only thing they lacked was the strong will to be healthy.)

[ 3 ] Instead of castles and monasteries, one finds sanatoriums today. Description of a visit to such a sanatorium: The patients are often not actually sick at all, though there was one person who was seriously ill—namely, the chief physician, who was suffering from a severe nervous disorder.

[ 4 ] It is often very important not to believe in certain symptoms of illness, even if they are actually present.

[ 5 ] The etheric body and the physical body are products of the astral body. There are still a few lingering effects of how the spiritual manifests itself in the physical body. It is a well-known fact that our mouths water when certain feelings come over us. This proves the great influence of feelings on physical processes, especially on

[ 6 ] blood circulation. The same is true when one turns pale from fear or blushes out of shame. Although these emotions are psychological processes, they have a direct effect on blood circulation.

[ 7 ] Purely intellectual, sober concepts are often the seeds of many other concepts. Imaginative concepts, accompanied by feelings, must emerge in our inner life if the body is to function healthily. A purely intellectual, sober worldview can have a very harmful effect on the physical body. That is why it is so important to have a proper worldview. Then one also experiences the joy of discovery and invention.

[ 8 ] A large part of today’s predisposition to illness stems from an erroneous worldview that has developed over the last few generations. In earlier times, people still understood how important it is—even for physical well-being—for a person to evoke certain feelings within themselves. The tragedies of the ancient Greeks, for example, still possessed this healing power. Even catharsis, in the context of ancient, healthy aesthetics, had what one might call a medical purpose. The mind, in fact, has a profound effect on all living things. Thus, even comedy—with the character of the foolish August, who stumbles from one folly into another—can have a healing effect with regard to this very folly. Certain ideas simply have a remarkably suggestive effect on people.

[ 9 ] When, in the face of a vast diversity of phenomena, one lacks the necessary knowledge and insight into these matters, the abundance of impressions—and what a person is capable of processing internally—often gives rise to a severe sense of dissonance. Many people are simply not equipped to cope with such a variety of phenomena. This, however, is the cause of all hysterical manifestations.

[ 10 ] Our age, with all its questions, can never come to a standstill. Those who live only in empty abstractions never stop asking questions, precisely because they are unable to fill these empty schemas with content. The irrational drive toward causality is also a basis for the development of hypochondria, which can have a profound effect on the physical body.

[ 11 ] Hysteria stems from an inner world that is too small and too weak in the face of an overwhelming external world of boundless diversity.

[ 12 ] People who are unable to establish a harmoniously ordered relationship with the world are increasingly pushed back into their own egos, and this failure to connect with the world gives rise to the condition known as hypochondria. It is essential that human beings be able to attain a broad and comprehensive understanding of the world—an understanding that, ultimately, only spiritual science can provide to this extent. Only then will we once again find within ourselves ideas, feelings, and sensations that have a positive effect on our organism and lead to the healing of the body.

[ 13 ] All such states of anxiety then fade away, because they arise solely from erroneous perceptions of our surroundings. Ultimately, true human well-being can only be achieved through a worldview that understands how to integrate human beings harmoniously into the course of the universe.

[ 14 ] Consider, for example, the mystical coordination of the microcosm and the macrocosm. To conclude, here is a quote from Goethe’s *Secrets*:

From the force that binds all beings,
The person who overcomes themselves is set free.