The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] It may be assumed that clearer—and, one might say, more humane—mental images will prevail regarding the very two concepts that are to be 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 a foothold in wider circles. It can certainly be said that, with regard to the concepts of the curability and incurability of diseases, the most diverse opinions have been held over the centuries. And one need not go very far back in history to see how drastically these concepts have changed.

[ 2 ] There we find a period—the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era, roughly the 16th, 17th centuries—when a mental image gradually took hold that forms of illness could be strictly categorized and that, in fact, for every illness there was some herb or mixture that would inevitably cure it. This belief persisted for quite a long time, actually well into the 19th century. And if one, as a layperson or as someone who has internalized modern concepts of time, were to read accounts of medical treatments from the late 18th or early 19th century and well into the 19th century, one would be astonished by all the remedies and quack remedies that were used extensively back then—from teas, mixtures to more dangerous medicines, bloodletting, and so on. But it was precisely the 19th century that, in medical circles—and indeed in prestigious medical circles—turned this view on its head. And I can safely say that much of these opposing views came to my attention during my younger years in a wide variety of nuances and motivations. The opportunity arose, for example, when one became involved with the movement of the nihilistic medical school, which was taking shape in Vienna around the middle of the 19th century and was, in fact, gaining more and more prestige. The starting point for a radical change in views regarding the curability and incurability of diseases was what the eminent physician Dietl brought to light regarding the course of pneumonia and similar illnesses. Through various observations, he had come to conclude that, fundamentally, no real influence of this or that remedy on the course of this or that disease could be discerned. And it was precisely under the influence of Dietl’s school that the young physicians of that time came to view the therapeutic value of remedies that had been in use for centuries in such a way that they applied to all traditional remedies the meaning of the well-known proverb: “If the rooster crows on the manure heap, the weather will change—or it will stay the same!” — They believed that it made little difference 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, showing that with the so-called “wait-and-see” approach he had introduced, roughly the same number of people suffering from pneumonia were cured or died as with the earlier treatment using the time-honored remedies. The “wait-and-see” treatment, founded by Dietl and continued by Skoda, consisted of placing the patient in external conditions that enabled him to make the best possible use of his self-healing powers, to draw them out of their organism; and the physician was assigned scarcely any other role than to monitor the course of the illness, so that he would be present should anything occur that could be appropriately addressed by human means. Otherwise, one limited oneself to, so to speak, watching the illness unfold, waiting to see how the body’s self-healing powers would manifest, until the fever subsided after some time and the body’s self-healing process took effect.

[ 3 ] This medical school was—and still is—referred to as the “nihilist school” because it was based on a statement by Professor Skoda, who said something to the effect of: “We may be able to learn to diagnose diseases, to describe them, and perhaps even to explain them—but we cannot cure them!” — I am telling you things that you should take note of as facts that emerged over the course of the 19th century, so that you may gain a sense of how mental images in this field have changed. But let no one believe that, just because this or that is stated here in a purely narrative form, a position is thereby being taken in one way or another. For, of course, 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 applies. But one thing was implied by such an opinion, without one actually having the means to consciously justify this implication in any way, or to describe it, or to put it into words—indeed, one could not even conceive of it in thought; that is to say, in the circles in which it was expressed, one could not even begin to think about this implication. It was pointed out that there must indeed be something within the human being that, in a certain respect, determines the outcome and course of an illness and that, as such, essentially lies beyond what human aid can provide.

[ 4 ] There was thus an indication of something that lies beyond human help; and this indication can never—if one truly gets to the heart of the matter—refer to anything other than the law of karma and the workings of karma in the course of human life. When we trace the course of an illness in human life—the onset of the illness, the healing forces springing from within the organism itself—when we trace the process of healing, then, if we observe it with an open mind, especially when we consider how healing occurs in one case while in another case no healing seems possible, we are driven to seek a deeper law. Should this deeper law be sought in a person’s previous earthly lives? That is the question for us. Can we say that a person brings with them certain preconditions that virtually predetermine their ability, in a particular case, to mobilize their body’s healing powers, whereas in another case these preconditions are such that, despite all efforts, they are unable to heal the illness?

[ 5 ] If you recall what was explained yesterday, you will understand that during the processes that take place between death and rebirth, very special forces are indeed absorbed into the human individuality. After all, we have said that during the kamaloka period, the events of a person’s last life—the good and evil deeds they have performed, their character traits, and so on—appear before their soul, and that through this review of their own life, they develop within themselves a tendency to seek remedy and balance for everything that is imperfect in them and that has manifested as a wrong action, to create a remedy and balance, and to imprint upon themselves the relevant qualities that will make them more perfect in this or that area. Once we have grasped this, we can say: The human being now retains this intention, this tendency, and through a new birth returns to existence with this intention. — But human beings themselves build the new body that becomes part of them and reshapes them in their new life, and they build it according to the forces they have brought with them from previous lifetimes and from the time between death and rebirth. He is endowed with these forces and weaves them into his new physical form. Thus we have understood that this new physical form is weak or strong, depending on whether the human being can weave weak or strong forces into it.

[ 6 ] Now, however, we must be clear that a certain consequence will ensue if, for example, a person has realized during the Kamaloka life: “In your last life, you were a human being who committed many actions under the influence of your emotions—anger, fear, revulsion, and so on.” — Such actions now stand vividly before their soul during the Kamaloka period, and there the thought takes shape within that soul—the expressions that arise for these forces are, of course, shaped by physical life!—: You must work on yourself so that you may become more perfect in this regard, so that in the future you will no longer be inclined to commit acts under the influence of your emotions! — This thought becomes an integral part of the human soul’s individuality, and as the soul passes through a new birth, this thought is further imprinted as a force within the newly emerging body. And through this, a tendency flows into these bodies to accomplish, with the entire organization of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body, that 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 may be able to truly perfect himself in this regard. And through this, the person will come to perform new actions that can now bring about a balance for earlier actions. Thus, out of a rationality that far surpasses his usual rationality, the person allows an intention to flow into himself that can lead him to a higher perfection in a specific area and to the balancing of certain actions. — If you consider how multifaceted life is, and how human beings perform such actions day after day that require such compensation, you will understand that there are many such thoughts in the soul awaiting compensation when the soul enters existence through a new birth, and that these manifold thoughts intersect, so that the human physical body and etheric body thereby assume a configuration in which all these tendencies are interwoven. To make this clear to us, let us consider a particularly striking case. But today, in particular, I must emphasize what I always emphasize: that I avoid speaking on the basis of any theory or speculation, and that when I cite examples, I cite only those that have been thoroughly verified by Spiritual Science.

[ 7 ] Let us assume that someone lived in their last life in such a way that they acted out of a sense of self that was far too weak—a sense of self that went far too far in its devotion to the external world, to the point that it manifested as a lack of independence and a loss of self, which is no longer appropriate for our current human cycle. So it was this lack of self-awareness that led a person in one incarnation to perform these or those actions. Now, during the Kamaloka period, he has before him the actions that flowed from this lack of self-awareness. From this, he first takes in the impulse: You must develop within yourself the forces that will enhance your sense of self; you must create the opportunity for yourself in a future incarnation to steel your sense of self—against the resistance of your physical nature and against the forces that will oppose you from the physical, etheric, and astral bodies—so that it undergoes a kind of schooling. You must acquire a body that shows you how the predisposition toward a weak sense of self manifests through physical nature!

[ 8 ] What will then take place in the next incarnation will enter the conscious mind only to a limited extent; it will unfold more or less in the subconscious realm. The individual in question will strive toward an incarnation that presents the most severe resistance to his sense of self, so that he is compelled to exert his sense of self to the utmost. As a result, he will be drawn, as if by a magnet, to those environments and circumstances where deeper obstacles stand in his way, where his sense of self must assert itself against the organization of the three bodies. As strange as it may sound to you: Such individuals, who are burdened with this karma—that they strive to enter existence through birth in the manner described—seek out situations where they may, for example, be exposed to an epidemic such as cholera; for this offers them the opportunity to encounter the very resistances that have just been described. What the patient must endure internally against the resistance of the three bodies can then result in the sense of self having grown to a considerable degree in the next incarnation.

[ 9 ] Let’s consider another striking case—specifically, to help you understand the context, the exact opposite case this time. During the Kamaloka period, a person sees that, driven by an excessive sense of self, he has performed a series of actions that stemmed from an overreliance on himself. He sees that he must moderate his sense of self, that he must rein it in. So they must once again seek out an opportunity where, in their next incarnation, their three bodies will allow their sense of self—no matter how hard it strives—to encounter no barriers anywhere within their physicality, so that it plunges into the abyss and reduces itself to absurdity. The conditions for this are established when the person in question is drawn to an opportunity presented by malaria.

[ 10 ] Here you have described a case of karmic influence and even stated that, fundamentally, human beings are guided by a higher rationality—one that transcends what they can comprehend with their ordinary consciousness—toward opportunities where they can continue to develop in the course of their karma. If you specifically consider the points that have just been made, it will be much easier for you to gain an understanding of the epidemic nature of diseases. We could cite a wide variety of examples, all of which show us how human beings, drawing on the experiences of their time in Kamaloka, actively seek out opportunities to contract this or that illness in order to gain—through overcoming it and through the unfolding of their self-healing powers—the strengths that will lead them upward along their life path as a whole.

[ 11 ] Earlier I said that if a person has acted largely under the influence of emotions, he will also, during the Kamaloka period, relive actions that occurred entirely under the influence of emotions. This will give them the tendency, in their new incarnation and within their own physical body, to experience something that, by overcoming it, will lead them to perform actions that can serve as a counterbalance to certain actions from their previous life. In particular, it is that form of illness which we have come to know in more recent times as diphtheria that manifests in many cases when such a karmic entanglement is present—where the person in question previously lived in such a way that they often acted out of all sorts of emotional outbursts, impulses, and so on.

[ 12 ] In the course of these lectures, we will hear a great deal more about the causes of this or that illness. But we must now delve into even deeper foundations if we are to answer the question: How is it that when a person enters existence through birth and, through their karma, brings with them the tendency to achieve one thing or another by overcoming this or that suffering—how is it that sometimes they succeed in truly triumphing, overcoming the illness, and drawing upon inner strengths that elevate them, while at other times they succumb and the illness remains the victor? To answer this, we must go back to the spiritual principles that make illness in human life possible in the first place.

[ 13 ] The fact that human beings can fall ill at all—that they can even actively seek out illness, even as a result of their karma—ultimately stems from no other principles than those we have often allowed to come before our souls in the most varied contexts of our theosophical reflections. — We know that at a certain point in the Earth’s evolution, certain forces entered human evolution—forces we call the Luciferic forces—which belong to those entities that lagged behind during the ancient Lunar evolution and did not advance far enough to have reached, so to speak, the normal stage of their earthly evolution. As a result, before the human “I” could act in the appropriate manner, something that flowed out from these Luciferic beings was implanted in the human astral body. The influence of these Luciferic beings is therefore one that was primarily exerted upon our astral body in the past and which the human being retained in his astral body throughout his subsequent development. This Luciferic influence has various implications for human development. For our present purpose, however, it is important to emphasize that, by having the Luciferic forces within himself, human beings had within them a tempter urging them to be less good than they would have been had the Luciferic influence not come; and likewise, as a result, he was subject to an influence that led him to act and judge more on the basis of all manner of emotions, passions, and desires than he would have judged and acted had the Luciferic influence not been at work. Through this influence, human beings’ true individuality was led to be different—to be, so to speak, more devoted to what we might call the world of desires than would otherwise have been the case. And this is how human beings became much more deeply entangled in the physical world of the Earth than would otherwise have happened. Through the Luciferic influence, human beings press themselves more deeply into their physicality and identify more with it than they would have done had no Luciferic influence come. For if the influence of the Luciferic beings had not come, many of the things on Earth that can entice human beings to desire this or that would not have come into being. Human beings would have passed indifferently by the impressions of these or those temptations. Through Lucifer’s influence, the temptations of the outer sensory world arose; human beings absorbed these temptations into themselves. The individuality, which was given through the “I,” became imbued with the effects that arose from the Luciferic principle. And so it came to pass that, during their first earthly incarnations, human beings also succumbed to the first temptations of the Luciferic principle and carried these temptations with them into later lives. This means that the manner in which human beings succumbed to the temptations of the Luciferic principle became an integral part of their karma.

[ 14 ] If humankind had absorbed only this principle, it would have succumbed more and more to the temptations of the physical earthly world; it would, so to speak, have increasingly lost any prospect of breaking free from this physical earthly world. We know that the later influence—the Christ influence—counteracted the Luciferic principle and, as it were, restored the balance, so that in the course of their development, human beings once again gained the means to drive this Luciferic influence out of themselves. But along with the Luciferic influence came something else. Because human beings had absorbed the Luciferic influence into their astral bodies, the entire external world they entered also appeared to them quite differently than it would have if they had not been subject to the Luciferic influence. Lucifer penetrated into the inner being of human beings. With Lucifer within, human beings viewed the world around them. As a result, their vision of the earthly world became clouded, and the Ahrimanic influence now mingled with their external impressions. It was only through this that Ahriman could intervene and transform the external world into an illusion, because we had already created within ourselves the predisposition for illusion—for maya—earlier on. Thus, the Ahrimanic influence that drew into the external world surrounding human beings was the consequence of the Luciferic influence. We can say: Because the Luciferic forces were once within him, human beings absorbed the potential to become more entangled in the sensory world than they would have been in earthly sensory life without the Luciferic influence. Through this, however, they also created the possibility of absorbing the Ahrimanic influence along with all external perceptions from the outside. And so, as the human individuality passes through its various earthly incarnations, the Luciferic influence lives within it, and as the result of the Luciferic influence, the Ahrimanic influence. These two forces are constantly at war within the human individuality. And the human individuality has become the arena for the struggle between Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 15 ] Even today, with his ordinary consciousness, human beings are still exposed both to the temptations of Lucifer, who acts through the passions and emotions of the astral body, and to the temptations of Ahriman, who penetrates into human beings from the outside through errors and deceptions concerning the external world. As long as a human being lives in an incarnation and the mental images act as a barrier—so that what comes from Lucifer and Ahriman cannot penetrate more deeply and encounters an obstacle in the mental images—so long do the human being’s actions remain subject to moral or intellectual judgment. As long as a human being sins against morality between birth and death by following Lucifer, or sins against logic and sound thinking by following Ahriman, that remains a matter of ordinary conscious soul life. But when a human being passes through the gate of death, the life of imagination—which is bound to the instrument of the brain—ceases. There, another form of conscious life begins. Indeed, all the things that are subject to moral or rational judgment in the life between birth and death descend into the depths of the human being and intervene in what, after the Kamaloka, works to organize the next existence and imprints itself upon the formative forces that now build up the threefold human physicality. There, errors arising from devotion to Ahriman become pathogenic forces that infect the human being through the etheric body, and excesses—that is, things subject to moral judgment in life—become causes of disease that act primarily through the astral body.

[ 16 ] This shows us how, in fact, our errors stem from the Ahrimanic within us—and this includes conscious errors as well: lies and untruths—become causes of illness, provided we do not limit ourselves to a single incarnation but consider the effect of one incarnation on the next; and we see how Luciferic influences, too, become causes of illness in the same way. We can indeed say: We do not commit our errors with impunity! We bear the mark of our errors in our next incarnation, but we do so out of a higher rationality than that of our ordinary life—out of the rationality that, during the time between death and new birth, instructs us to make ourselves so strong and vigorous that we are no longer exposed to these temptations in the future. Thus, illnesses even take their place as powerful teachers 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 a disease. Once these things are understood by those who, under the influence of the Spiritual Science worldview, will become healers, then the influence of these healers on the human organism will be far more profound than it can be today.

[ 17 ] In this sense, we can truly gain insight into the organism in certain forms of illness. Let us take, for example, a disease such as pneumonia. It is an effect in the karmic sequence that arises because the person in question, during his time in Kamaloka, can look back on a character that had within it a tendency and inclination toward sensual excesses—a character that had, so to speak, a need to live sensually. Let us not confuse what is now attributed to a previous consciousness with what arises in the consciousness of the next incarnation. This has nothing to do with that at first. However, what the person sees during the Kamaloka period will transform in such a way that forces are imprinted within them for processes that overcome pneumonia. For it is precisely in overcoming pneumonia—in the self-healing that the person strives for in the process—that the human individuality works against the Luciferic forces, waging a veritable war against them. Therefore, overcoming pneumonia offers an opportunity to shed what was a character flaw in a previous incarnation. Thus, we see the human being’s struggle against the Luciferic forces literally at work in the course of pneumonia.

[ 18 ] The situation presents itself differently to us when, in what we now commonly refer to as pulmonary tuberculosis, we observe the peculiar processes that occur when the body’s self-healing forces are activated; these forces manifest themselves by enclosing and surrounding the harmful influences that arise there—enveloping them with tissues such as connective tissue; then the whole area is filled with a substance containing calcium salts, which forms solid inclusions. A person can have such inclusions in their lungs, and far more people carry such things within them than is generally believed; for these are the people in whom a tuberculous lung has entered a healing phase. Where such a process has taken place, a struggle has once again been waged by the human inner being against what the Ahrimanic forces have wrought. It is a defensive process directed outward, a charge against what is brought about by external materiality, in order to lead to the independence of the human being in this sense.

[ 19 ] We have thus shown how, in fact, the two principles—the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic—are ultimately at work in the course of a disease. And in many respects, it could be demonstrated for this or that form of disease how one should actually distinguish between two types of diseases: Ahrimanic and Luciferic diseases. If this were taken into account, one would also be able to derive the correct principles for providing the appropriate help to the sick. For Luciferic disease processes will require entirely different kinds of help than Ahrimanic ones. If, even today, forces are applied in a rather uncritical manner—for example, in external therapeutic procedures—such as those found in modern electrotherapy, cold-water treatment, or similar methods, it must be said that Spiritual Science can shed light from the outset on whether one should apply one method or the other, by distinguishing whether one is dealing with a Luciferic or an Ahrimanic illness. No one, for example, should apply electrotherapy to illnesses that originate from the Luciferic; rather, it should be applied only to Ahrimanic forms of illness. For in the case of Luciferic forms of illness, something that has absolutely nothing to do with the workings of Lucifer—namely, the principles of electricity—can never be of any help; for these fall within the realm of the Ahrimanic beings, although, of course, it is not only the Ahrimanic beings who make use of the forces of electricity. In contrast, a very special realm of the Luciferic is that which relates, roughly speaking, to warmth and cold. Everything connected with the human organism becoming warmer or colder—or with what causes it to become warmer or colder through external influences—belongs to the realm of Lucifer. And in all such cases where we are dealing with warmth or cold, we encounter a type of Luciferic disease.

[ 20 ] Thus we see how karma operates in illness and how it works to overcome illness. Now it will no longer seem incomprehensible that the curability or incurability of an illness also lies within karma. If you realize that the goal—the karmic goal—of falling ill is to help a person grow and become more perfect, then the prerequisite is that when a person, in accordance with the rationality they bring with them from the Kamaloka period upon entering a new existence, falls ill, they will then develop those healing powers that signify a strengthening of their inner being and the possibility of advancing to a higher level. Let us assume that the situation is such that, in the life he still has before him, by virtue of his general constitution and the rest of his karma, the person has the strength to make further progress in this very life with what he has achieved through the illness. Then the healing has a purpose. Then healing occurs, and in this case the person has attained what they were meant to attain—that which was revealed by the presence of the illness. By overcoming the illness, they have enabled themselves to possess perfect powers where they previously had imperfect ones. If, through their karma, they are endowed with such powers and, through the favorable circumstances of their past destiny, have been placed in the world in such a way that they can apply these new powers and act to benefit themselves and others, then healing occurs; then they work their way through the illness.

[ 21 ] Let us now assume that the situation for a person is such that he overcomes the illness and develops his healing powers, and now faces a life that would place demands on him which cannot be met with the degree of perfection he has already attained: Although he would achieve certain things through having overcome the illness, it would still not be possible for him to achieve so much—because his remaining karma does not permit it—that he could become a source of healing for others through what he has attained. Then what happens is that his deeper subconscious mind says: Here you have no opportunity to receive the full power of what you are actually meant 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 into circumstances where your physical body and other forces do not interfere with you, and where you can freely process what you have gained through the illness. — That is to say, such an individual seeks death in order to further process, between death and a new birth, what they cannot process in the life between birth and death. Such a soul passes through the life between death and rebirth in order to further develop its constitution—now with even greater strength gained from overcoming the illness—so that it can have an even greater impact in its new life. In this way, the very presence of an illness can effect a kind of down payment, which is then only completed after passing through death to become what it is meant to be.

[ 22 ] If we look at the matter this way, we will have to admit: It seems entirely justified by karma that one illness ends in healing, while another ends in death. — If we view illnesses in this way, we will, from a higher perspective, gain through karma a kind of reconciliation—a profound reconciliation with life—because we will know that it lies within the laws of karma that, even when an illness ends in death, the human being is uplifted; that even in such a case, the illness has the purpose of elevating the human being. Now, no one should draw the conclusion from this that we might actually have to wish for death in certain cases of illness. No one should say that, because the decision regarding what is to occur—whether healing or incurability—is left to a higher rationality than that which 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 indeed adopt a perspective that even accepts death as a gift from the higher spiritual powers. But with the consciousness intended to help and intervene in life, we must not presume to adopt this higher perspective. We could easily err there and would intervene in an outrageous manner in something in which we must never intervene: the sphere of human freedom. If we can help a person develop their self-healing powers, or by aiding nature ourselves so that healing may occur, then we must do so. And if the decision must be made as to whether a person should continue living or whether they would be better served by death, then that decision can never be made in any other way than to ensure that our help can be a aid in the healing process. If this is the case, we place it within the person’s own individuality to apply their own powers, and medical assistance can only be such that it 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 intervening in their individuality and handing their individuality over to another sphere of influence. Then we would have imposed our will upon that other individuality. We must leave this decision to the individuality itself. In other words: We must do as much as possible to bring about a healing. For all considerations that lead to a healing arise from the consciousness that is appropriate for our Earth; all other measures would extend beyond our earthly sphere; there, forces other than those that fall within our ordinary consciousness must intervene.

[ 23 ] Thus we see that a correct karmic understanding of the curability and incurability of illnesses leads us to do everything in our power to help the person during their illness; and on the other hand, it also leads us to accept, to our satisfaction, any decision made from other spheres. We do not need anything else with regard to this other decision. What we do need is to find a perspective so that the incurability of a disease does not weigh us down, as if the world were composed only of the imperfect, the terrible, and the bad. Karmic understanding does not paralyze our drive to heal. On the other hand, an understanding of karma will also bring us back into harmony with even the most difficult fate regarding the incurability of this or that illness. Thus, we have seen today how an understanding of karma alone enables us to perceive and comprehend the course of an illness in the right way, so that we can literally see the karmic effects from our past lives shining into the present one. Specific examples will become clear to us as we discuss the next questions.

[ 24 ] Now it will be up to us to distinguish between two specific types of illness: those that arise from within the human being and appear to be brought about specifically by karma, and those illnesses that seem to befall us by chance because we are exposed to external harm or 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 struck by a train? In other words, how are so-called “random” illnesses to be understood in terms of karma?