The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Anthroposophical Foundations of Pharmacology IV

[ 1 ] Of course, my aim today is simply to present to you some methodological considerations with a therapeutic focus, as they arise from perspectives of Spiritual Science. Given the limited time available, it is naturally not possible to go into detail. However, I believe that for the beginning of the work to be carried out by the Spiritual Science in the field of medicine, it is above all important that these perspectives be clearly highlighted. I may say that, with regard to specific details, these perspectives have been carefully applied in the preparation of our remedies. It may not be immediately apparent how these more general perspectives can be developed in specific terms, but I will endeavor, precisely in my discussion of methodology today, to point out a few things that may at least provide food for thought in this direction.

[ 2 ] Anyone who fails to take into account that the so-called normal functions are, in essence, merely metamorphoses of the very functions we must induce to counter pathological conditions will not truly be able to understand the human organism in its healthy and diseased states—or, to put it more accurately for our present purposes: in its state of health and its process of recovery. In this regard, we must always bear in mind that the human organism is internally filled with processes that are not the same as those taking place externally. Let us first consider that, through the digestive tract itself, everything a person takes in from the outside—for example, from the plant kingdom—must first be preprocessed so that the person can then further vitalize it. This vitalization, this enlivening, as I said, must be a unique activity of the human being, and the human organism simply could not exist if it did not carry out this vitalization. Now we must be clear that the plant cover of our Earth essentially undergoes the opposite process from that which takes place within the human being. When we speak of vitalization in connection with the path that human food takes through the organism—that is, in a sense, of an ascending curve—a curve that rises first from the essentially inorganic to the vitalized, to the living, from there to that which can serve as a vehicle for sensation, and finally from there to that which can serve as the vehicle for the “I” organization—that is, when we speak of the processing of food up to its absorption into the astral organism, up to its absorption into the vehicle of the world of sensation—then we must speak of an increasing vitalization of what is taken in through food.

[ 3 ] In plants, we see exactly the opposite. In plants, we first observe—in all peripheral organs, that is, as the plant develops from the bottom up, during the initiation of the leaf and petal formation processes—essentially a process of devitalization. Vitality is reserved solely for the seed. In the plant we are initially addressing—for when we address the seed in the ovary, we are in fact already addressing the next plant that is yet to come into being, ‘that which is saved for the next plant’—not a process of vitalization from the bottom up, but rather vitality is drawn precisely from what is stored by the earth from the earthly realm: from the previous year’s solar heat and the previous year’s solar light energy. The strongest life force is found in the root system. And we have a gradual process of devitalization from the bottom up; and when we reach the petals—especially those petals that contain a high concentration of essential oils—then we also find the most intense process of devitalization in such plants. We have a process that is very often connected, for example, with the actual transformation of sulfur, which is then actually contained as a substance in the flower’s essential oil—or at least is adjacent to the flower’s essential oil—and which actually brings about the process that transforms the plant, I would say, into the most volatile inorganic substance—that inorganic substance which, in a sense, still retains traces of the organic, the living. It is extraordinarily important that we be clear about what we are actually introducing into our organism, even when we ingest the plant. The plant is engaged in a process that is the opposite of the one taking place in the human organism.

[ 4 ] And if, starting from there, you then turn your attention to the actual disease, you will have to admit to yourself: In fact, the plant realm—and the same is true of other substances in the external world, though to a much greater degree in the animal realm—is opposed to what the human organism develops within itself as a tendency to bring about this or that process. So that when we look impartially at human nutrition, we cannot help but say to ourselves: With every food we consume, we are actually introducing something into the human organism that it must thoroughly reverse. So, fundamentally, every act of nutrition is the beginning of a form of poisoning. And when we speak of actual poisoning, we must be clear that this is merely a very radical metamorphosis of what is already quietly occurring when we simply take in food—let’s say, through ptyalin. And the subsequent course of digestion—namely, what is then brought about by what I described to you as kidney activity—is always, without exception, a process of detoxification. So we simply go through the rhythm of gentle poisoning and detoxification by eating daily and by digesting what we have eaten. This is the gentlest form of metamorphosis of the process that is then intensified when we introduce remedies into the organism; and therefore it is, of course, utter nonsense to rave about “toxin-free medicine.” This is, of course, nonsense for the simple reason that the only question that can be asked is: In what way do we intensify what already occurs during normal digestion by introducing substances into the human organism that are more foreign than those encountered in normal digestion?

[ 5 ] We must have a thorough understanding of the human organism if we are to be able to fully grasp the value of an external remedy for this organism. Let us begin with something that is actually constantly present in the human organism as a remedy: iron in the blood. The iron in the blood actually plays the role of a remedy at all times and protects us from the tendency toward a disease that we carry within us. Now I would like to describe this to you first in the most basic way. As you know, if our brain, weighing about 1,500 grams, were to rest on the base of the skull, then—naturally—our blood vessels at the base of the skull would be crushed. It does not rest on the base of the skull; rather, the brain actually floats in cerebrospinal fluid and, according to the principle of buoyancy, loses as much of its weight as the weight of the displaced fluid, so that the brain actually exerts a pressure of only about 20 grams on the base of the skull instead of 1,500 grams. This fact is of fundamental importance, for it simply shows us that gravity is not the active force underlying brain functions—such as, for example, ego activity. This “I”-activity, and also to a large extent the activity of imagination—insofar as it is not an activity of the will but an activity of imagination—I am referring here specifically to its physical correlate, brain activity—does not rest on the weight of the matter in question, but on buoyancy. It rests on the force that seeks to lift the matter away from the Earth. After all, we do not live in heaviness with our “I” and our thoughts; we live right within this buoyancy. But here it becomes apparent only in a particularly strong way when we view the matter in this way.

[ 6 ] What holds true for the brain essentially holds true for many other aspects of the human organism. Above all, it applies to the iron-containing blood cells that float in the blood plasma, each of which loses an amount of weight equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Now consider this: If we are living in a state of uplift with our soul, what difference does it make—for our entire emotional experience and indeed for the whole of life in the human organism—whether we have a few more or fewer iron-containing blood cells inside us? In other words: If we understand in a specific case that what is happening in the blood simply due to the buoyancy of the iron-containing blood cells is not right, then we know that we must supply iron in some way—but in such a way that the iron can actually function properly in the blood and is not used for some other purpose.

[ 7 ] In Spiritual Science terms, this means: We are dealing with the iron content of the blood in relation to the relationship between the human etheric organism and the astral organism. And once you understand how the activity of the heart and lungs transforms everything taken in by the human being into vitalization—which, in turn, is transformed by the activity of the kidneys into the astral organism—then you will be well on your way to realizing that balance must prevail here. If either the etheric activity or the astral activity becomes too strong—if there is no balance—then the entire organism must fall into disorder. But the means to bring about this proper balance—that is, to give the organism the ability to convert exactly as much of the food as is necessary into renal activity—is provided by regulating the iron content in the blood. And since you endow the truly dynamic force in the blood with either heaviness or buoyancy, depending on how you regulate the iron content, you thereby regulate the entire blood circulation, which in turn affects kidney function, and in the process of increasing or decreasing the iron content, you have a key regulator of blood circulation—that is, of the interrelationship between the human etheric and astral organisms.

[ 8 ] Now let’s apply this by focusing on something specific. Let’s suppose we observe, in the human organism, let’s say, flatulence as an initial symptom. I want to highlight the most basic aspects here so that we can understand one another. Now, what does flatulence mean to someone who understands the human organism? It means that there are air formations within the body that are too heavily permeated by the astral organism and that do not dissolve quickly enough. These are effects of the astral organism, which, after all, acts within the gaseous human, the airy human; there are effects of the astral organism present in the human being that, so to speak, instead of forming and dissolving regularly, accumulate. Thus we have a predominance of astral organizational activity, which expresses itself physically in the airy human. This is what we have when we observe flatulence. But because the astral activity is too strong, it impairs our entire sensory activity, particularly the activity of the head. For because the astral activity is not properly distributed throughout the organism but instead stagnates, it does not act properly on the metabolism but rebounds back toward the sensory-nervous system, with which it is more closely related. And so we will very soon notice that the sensory-nervous system is not functioning properly either, or at least we assume that we have a complex of symptoms indicating that the sensory-nervous system is not functioning properly. Now I must say something about this when I speak of the sensory-nervous system not functioning properly.

[ 9 ] In physiology, people actually make a mess of things when it comes to this sensory nervous system. Please forgive me; I don’t mean any harm—I just want to speak my mind radically so that we can understand each other better. Of course, you must take everything with a grain of salt, but if I express myself too compromisingly, we’ll actually understand each other less, so please allow me to speak my mind radically about these matters. In the human organism, from a supersensory perspective, when we look at any function that we can demonstrate through sensory-empirical means, it is, from a higher point of view, the sensory image of something spiritual. The entire human organism is the sensory image of something spiritual. But the interaction between the spiritual-psychic and the physical-organic in the human organism is truly not as simple as one might have a mental image of it with regard to the sensory-nervous system. Rather, the underlying reality is that, if one looks only at the physical organization of the human being, the situation is not at all as one would like to assume—namely, that the physical organization, with the exception of the nervous system and the senses, forms a unified whole, and that the nervous system is embedded within this structure to serve the soul separately. Of course, it does not have a radical mental image, but when one bases practical observation on what one has as physiological theory, it amounts to something like that. Therefore, there is so little possibility today of making a reasonable judgment about what are often called functional diseases, nervous disorders, and so on. In the human organism, there is simply nothing that does not belong to the whole organism and interact with other organs. There is no separate nervous system that exists merely so that the organism can otherwise provide for itself, and into which—I do not know by which deity—the nervous system has been embedded so that it can be a soul. Look for the evidence; you can find it in the blink of an eye! First and foremost, the nervous system is the source from which the formative, “rounding forces” of the human organism—mentioned yesterday—emanate. The shape of your nose, the shape of your entire organism, is essentially shaped by the nervous system. The renal system radiates the forces of matter outward, and the nervous system is there to give the organism its forms, both internally and externally; it has, at first, absolutely nothing to do with the soul; it is the shaper, the former of the human organism, both internally and externally; it is the sculptor. And already in the early stages of human individual development, a certain special part of nervous activity, so to speak, separates itself—a part that the organism does not use for its own shaping—and the soul adapts to this—this is secondary—and adapts more and more. And when one observes—I would say—this separation of a portion of the nervous process during the early childhood years and the adaptation of the soul life to these formative principles, only then does one actually have the true empirical reality. There is really no question of the nervous system having to be incorporated into the human organism by some council of the gods and serving as the foundation for the life of the senses, emotions, and thought. There is absolutely no question of that. Rather, sensory-nervous life is born with a kind of hypertrophy; a portion of this is spared, and psychological activity then adapts to this spared portion, while the primary formative force within the nervous-sensory system is the shaping principle. All organs are shaped out of the nervous-sensory system. If you wish to verify this empirically, begin with the senses located in the skin—those spread across the entire skin—such as the sense of warmth and the sense of touch, and try to see how, through these senses, the entire form of the human organism is plastically shaped, while other senses give specific organs their form. Even our ability to see is based on the fact that something remains of the formative power that originally emanates from the visual tract for the formation of the brain organs, to which what we develop psychologically in our visual faculty then adapts.

[ 10 ] Until we gain a clear understanding of these matters, we will not be able to truly understand human beings at all, since we simply do not realize that, as metabolism takes place within us continuously, every day, year after year, since our organs must first be continually supplied by what radiates from the kidneys via the radial pathways, and that the organs must then be plastically rounded out. The substance radiated by the kidneys must be continuously shaped into a rounded form. This process takes place throughout a person’s entire lifetime, originating from those nerve organs that extend from the senses into the interior of the human organism. It is simply an adaptation of the soul to this particular organ system, through which higher sensory activity, imaginative activity, and so on then come into being. Now, this will show us that when, on the one hand, we have bloating as part of a complex of symptoms—and thereby already determine that the astral organization is too strong—this excess of the astral organization is, in a sense, directed toward the formative power of the senses, so that in the periphery and toward the upper regions of the human organism, not only does an accumulation of astral activity take place, but these gas bubbles—which actually aspire to become organs—are additionally rounded off. In other words, due to excessive kidney activity, there is a constant attempt in the upper part of the human being to hold back the ego organization, preventing everything that enters the organism through the blood from being returned in the proper manner. And so we will very often find this complex I am now describing associated with, let us say, cramps, which are based on the fact that the astral does not enter the rest of the organism in the proper way. If it stagnates above, it does not enter the rest of the organism. We observe cramp-like phenomena in the rest of the organism, which always stem from the astral being held back. In this case, it remains behind, and we can now—when we observe such a complex of symptoms inwardly, so to speak, initially with the aid of the supersensible—relate what we see externally to what we have observed inwardly.

[ 11 ] Just imagine: the astral is held up there, causing the entire metabolism to be drawn upward; the astral body does not properly nourish the kidneys, and especially not the stomach; the The stomach, receiving too little from the astral organization, fights back: externally, you see colic and stomach cramps. Or characteristic cramps occur in the sexual organs, precisely because the sexual organs are not properly organized astral-wise; or menstrual irregularities occur because the activity of the “I” is held back above.

[ 12 ] Now we ask ourselves: How can we intervene in the face of such irregularities? You see, it’s actually best to be clear that the “magical names” we give to diseases really serve only for conventional communication; what matters is actually seeing, everywhere, what is grouping together—and, in fact, interweaving—from individual symptoms. But we must be able to interpret these symptoms. Now, imagine for a moment that we are looking at what, in a sense, clings as a function to a sulfur-containing flower. What I mean is this: If we have a flower that contains some sulfur, this means that a very strong process toward the inorganic is taking place, yet the organic is still attached to it. If we now introduce such a flower—or even just the sulfur extracted from such a plant flower—into the human organism as a remedy, we thereby stimulate, above all, the processes occurring in the digestive tract to greater activity. We stimulate this activity. As a result—because, as I have said, a process of devitalization is essentially taking place in the plant that must be reversed—the stomach, and then especially intestinal activity, is stimulated by sulfur-containing flower tea. And this, in turn, indirectly triggers a strong reaction to whatever irregularity has arisen with regard to kidney function, and we initially have—albeit perhaps only temporarily, since effects of this kind are usually only temporary— but if we help the organism for a while, it will in most cases help itself—the ability to counterbalance this upward stagnation with strong downward counterpressure, to bring the astral organization back down into the digestive tract, so to speak, which will be evident in the disappearance of colic and stomach cramps. But that alone is probably sufficient only in the rarest of cases. It may be sufficient when mild stomach cramps occur. We should never overstimulate the organism; where we can use a milder remedy, we should never use a stronger one.

[ 13 ] Let us assume we are dealing with the complex of symptoms I have just described, and let us first focus our attention—since the disturbance is a very severe one—on the fact that the overactive astral body is being engaged by intense kidney activity, which strongly influences the sensory organization, thereby weakening and undermining it in a certain way. It is not actually undermined as a sensory system, but the astral organism exerts a strong influence on it, so that, in a sense, the formative power of the nerve-sensory system is drowned out by the mere activity of the astral organism. The sense organs—or the sensory-nervous system as a whole—are no less active, but they are not active in their own inherent way as a sensory-nervous system; rather, they, so to speak, take on the organization of the astral body and function in the same way that the astral body itself functions; that is, they do not act in the proper, formative way. We must apply something that will remove astral activity from the sensory-nervous system. We can do this only by applying that which acts upon the sensory-nervous system, which is, after all, most closely related to the external world and, as an organization within the human being, is most akin to the inorganic.

[ 14 ] Sensory physiology is so successful precisely because it can explain so much about the sensory organs in inorganic terms—that is, purely physically or, at most, chemically. Just think how much of what happens in the eye is purely optical! One can draw such beautiful diagrams of the eye if one conceives of it as a kind of photographic apparatus. I merely wish to point out how we are connected to the external world precisely through the sense organs, how we have channels in our senses through which the external world extends into us precisely through the inorganic.

[ 15 ] Now, if we are to support this specific sensory-nervous activity, we can do so very effectively through everything that is introduced into the human organism as silicic acid, for silicic acid has an affinity for this peripherally inorganic substance. We drive out the astral organization, so to speak, through that which, in everything underlying silica, exerts such an extraordinarily strong outward pressure toward the inorganic. If you find silicic acid in any flower, you will always discover how that flower becomes prickly, how it pushes toward the inorganic. And through this, we are able to relieve the sensory organs, on the one hand through this siliceous quality, and on the other hand by supplying the organism in such a state with more sugar than it usually has. Sugar is also something that is processed in the human organism in a way that is closest to the inorganic realm, so that everything supplied in the form of sugar likewise relieves the sense organs. If you are somehow able to do so, you can support this process by consuming alkaline salts, which in particular relieve the nervous system of astral activity. These are the kinds of things you must verify through empirical experiments.

[ 16 ] Spiritual Science makes it possible to arrive at regulative principles because, for example, in the activity that develops in intuitive cognition, one sees the aftereffects of sugar particularly clearly in those parts of the human nervous system that extend from the central nervous system to the senses; if one observes the aftereffects of silicic acid, one sees that it literally pushes toward the peripheral system, which develops in the senses. But these things can indeed be verified; these things can be tested. And this is how remedies work—those simply composed of alkaline salts, which greatly relieve nervous activity from the astral being; sugar, which of course must not be consumed in the usual amounts but in an unusual manner, which I will point out shortly; and silicic acid. These act when the complex of symptoms I have described is present to a high degree.

[ 17 ] The substances I have just mentioned are most effective as remedies when you simply use the chamomile root, which you boil down appropriately. It may seem strange to you that I am speaking specifically of the root, but the considerations overlap, and we must be clear that when the symptoms are pronounced, we need sulfur the least and rather that which is derived from the floral part of the plant. What we do need, however, is that which the plant still contains in a highly vitalistic form, so the process must be a lengthy one to make the counteraction strong enough. If we introduce the substances characteristic of the chamomile root into the digestive tract in the appropriate dosage, then the counteraction in this case is not strong enough to allow vitalization to occur during the transition from the intestine to the blood; rather, it is simply forced through in an unprocessed state—namely, that which is contained in sugar and silicic acid, but also the components present in the alkaline salts. This allows the kidneys to absorb these substances into their radiation, so that the kidneys act upon the nervous-sensory activity through these substances that are received there. As a result, the nervous-sensory activity is relieved of the corresponding astral functions.

[ 18 ] When one sees through something like this—when one actually sees how, precisely by proceeding therapeutically in this way, the most healing effect can be achieved—then such a process becomes particularly instructive. One can then be easily guided toward other things. One can, so to speak, see how what is taken in is transformed within the human organism, how kidney function then comes into play—which actually absorbs what is supplied to it from the bloodstream and excretes it—and how the plastic activity then exerts its effect; how this plastic activity is then established in its purity through silicic acid, sugar, and alkaline salts. And one might say: For supersensible perception, when intuitively viewed in the right mixture, silicic acid, alkaline salts, and sugar form a kind of human phantom. One has something like a phantom before one’s eyes when one creates a mental image of these substances in their formative power. For these substances are primarily plastic in nature; they carry plasticity within them. This becomes clear through this insight, right down to the outer physical form.

[ 19 ] The strong effect of silicic acid is primarily due to the fact that silicic acid tends to form long crystals when it occurs in the inorganic realm. What can be achieved with silicic acid cannot be achieved with other substances that tend to form more rounded crystals rather than elongated ones. Such substances might perhaps cure a hedgehog, but not a human being, whose very principle of growth involves a tendency toward elongation.

[ 20 ] Anyone who lacks an appreciation for this artistic aspect of nature—which shapes the organism, shaping it primarily through nervous and sensory activity—cannot rationally discern the relationships that exist between external substances and what takes place within the human organism. But there is such a rational therapy that simply brings together what is happening outside and what is being broken down within the human organism—processes that can be radiated by kidney activity and taken up by the plastic activity of the nervous-sensory organism.

[ 21 ] Let’s take another example. Suppose that instead of kidney function that is too strong and radiates too intensely, we had kidney function that is too weak—that is, too little of the nutrients would be absorbed into the astral realm.

[ 22 ] Everything I described in the previous complex of symptoms stems from an excessive influence on the astral organism, because it is active in the upper part of the human being and interferes with digestive activity, cardiac activity, lung function; and as a concomitant of this symptom complex, mucus accumulation and other symptoms occur that you can easily observe. So here we are dealing with excessive astral activity.

[ 23 ] Let us assume, on the contrary, that we are dealing with astral activity that is too weak. Kidney activity radiates too little, not enough, so that the human astral organism is in fact unable to provide what it is supposed to provide to the formative force as it enters it. The formative force cannot penetrate all the way to the astral organism. It does not reach the periphery sufficiently, so that no active contact occurs between the formative force and the forces of nutrition, material circulation, and material distribution. The substance is distributed without being utilized by the formative force. There is too little plastic force present; the substance is left to its own devices; the astral body remains too ephemeral; it does not function properly in the processing of the substance. You see, we can certainly regard such a thing as a complex of symptoms. What will this complex of symptoms look like? Well, first and foremost, what flows through the bloodstream is not properly absorbed by the kidneys, which are functioning too weakly—that is, by the astral organization, which is functioning too weakly. It falls away, so to speak. Hemorrhoids are present; excessive menstrual flow is present. The connection is missing, and the metabolism breaks down within itself. In particular, when the organism is in this state, a kind of occult fever—even intermittent fever—can very easily set in.

[ 24 ] Well, you see, the question now is: How do we address such a complex of symptoms? Here we have insufficient activity of the astral organism. We need to stimulate kidney function so that sufficient substances are absorbed into the astral organism through kidney activity. Well, this is where what I’ve already hinted at comes into play. The best thing to do now is to establish a balance between the etheric and astral organisms. Then, from what enters the heart-lung system from the digestive tract, we’ll naturally achieve the proper transition to kidney function. We achieve a kind of balance, but we can specifically regulate this by adjusting—in many cases—the body’s iron content, which regulates circulation; specifically, by inducing strong internal kidney activity, which will also be evident externally in a change in urea excretion, both through the kidneys and through sweat from the skin. This will certainly become apparent. And, of course, in many cases we must be aware that this balance is always extremely unstable, and that the remedy in question—which we already possess within ourselves—is effective only in the most severe cases.

[ 25 ] But while in the digestive tract, substances that contain sulfur in some form are particularly helpful, and while in the nervous-sensory system—which we now regard as a formative principle—substances such as silicic acid and alkaline salts are particularly helpful, it is the pure metals that properly regulate the balance between heaviness and buoyancy. We need only experiment to determine how to use them—starting with iron—to restore the disturbed balance in the most varied ways. Sometimes it will be gold, sometimes copper, depending on the complex of symptoms. But when we are constrained here by the form of the disease in the human organism, we will be able to achieve the most important results with the pure metals. And if the interplay between formation and deformation is such that too little formation occurs and this becomes organic—that is, if the relationship between the lung-heart system and the kidney system is initially out of balance—then, if this is indeed the case, we can best address it with iron.

[ 26 ] But if the situation is such that organs have already become deformed due to prolonged disruptions in these processes—because the plastic activity cannot reach these organs—that is, if organs are already deformed and have already suffered from a lack of plastic activity, then we must, so to speak, use mercury. Mercury is particularly effective on the lower organs of the human body because it already possesses formative forces—the metallically stable droplet form. Similarly, one can find certain correlations between metals and the affected, deformed major organs—for example, when the nervous system itself is affected. In this regard, however, it is best not to rely solely on establishing a stable equilibrium in the face of fluctuations in balance. That is extraordinarily difficult. It is like trying to balance a very sensitive scale: we try in every way to bring the beam into balance, but it is very difficult. But we can achieve it more easily if we don’t just fiddle with the balance beam, but rather if we fiddle with the pans. We can achieve a state of equilibrium, for example, by supporting the action of iron through the introduction of sulfur-containing substances into the digestive tract and counteracting this with alkaline salts in the nervous-sensory organism. Then, in the middle human being—the rhythmic human being—iron is active—it is then distributed beautifully—we have potassium and calcium, or alkaline salts, active in the nervous-sensory system, and we have sulfuric substances active in the digestive rhythm. In this way, we are better able to achieve balance.

[ 27 ] Now it is very curious that we find the opposite condition in the leaves of certain plants. For example, if you properly prepare the leaves of Urtica dioica—but they must be the leaves of Urtica dioica, the common stinging nettle—you will have a remedy consisting of sulfur, iron, and the necessary salts, which act in this way. One must simply be able to truly observe the devitalizing force present in the plant and the vitalizing force present in the human organism. In fact, with Urtica dioica, the entire sulfur process in the root gradually shifts toward the inorganic. The human organism takes the opposite path, converting the sulfur via a detour through protein in such a way that it gradually regulates digestion. The iron in Urtica dioica acts from the leaves in such a way that Urtica dioica, even in the seed and thereby in the following year’s leaves, breaks down precisely that which brings the rhythmic process in the human organism together. It is the opposite process in Urtica dioica. And it is indeed the case that what you encounter in Urtica dioica, starting from the leaves, is this destructive force that must be overcome if the rhythmic process in the human organism is to be restored to order. And conversely, the alkaline salts found within the plant are the least converted into inorganic substances; they therefore have the longest path to travel, extending all the way to the nervous-sensory system, and they ascend easily, since we already know that in the complex of symptoms we are considering, kidney activity is dormant and suppressed. And in the human organism, we really have the opposite distribution of what is found externally in plant growth. But it is by no means necessary that we be content merely with plant remedies; we can also produce synthetic remedies by combining, in an appropriate dosage, the substances I have just described, and can thereby also bring about cures.

[ 28 ] These are the things that can actually gradually transform therapy into a rational science or art, for it will never become a pure science any more than one can become a sculptor without being an artist. One can know a great deal about how to wield a palette knife or how to shape clay, but there is always an element that crosses over into the artistic realm. Without that, therapy cannot be achieved either. One must, I would say, get a feel for it—mentally, of course—to determine the proper dosage. This is, of course, something that does not sit well at all with many who would like to transform medicine into a pure science, but that is simply the way it is.

[ 29 ] Now I would like to use an example to illustrate what else might happen. It is quite possible that a disruption occurs in the proper interaction between what the human organism produces as inorganic matter—as a preparation for organization—and the intervention of the etheric body, specifically the activity of the heart and lungs. This disruption actually becomes increasingly likely as one grows older. In such cases, the digestive tract and the circulatory system do not work together properly. When this occurs, it is especially important to be aware that the result is an accumulation of metabolic waste products. Of course, if this process does not spread properly throughout the organism, we are dealing with an accumulation of metabolic waste products. This brings us into the entire realm of metabolic diseases, ranging from the mildest to the most severe forms. And we must be clear that even then, kidney function is not normal—but this is because the kidneys receive nothing to excrete, since the buildup has already occurred beforehand. We are dealing here with very complex forms of disease: on the one hand, the digestive and renal systems are not supplying anything to provide material for plasticizing activity; on the other hand, due to an atrophy of plasticizing activity, we are dealing with a disturbance of the organic balance from the other side, so that plasticizing activity gradually ceases as well. Metabolic products spread throughout the organism, but the process of incorporating them into plastic activity—using them as building material—gradually ceases entirely. And we end up with metabolic diseases that are quite difficult to combat, which must be treated precisely by attempting to address everything that, I would say, is related to what is becoming inorganic—that is, what is related to sulfurous and phosphorous substances, what in plant blossoms is adjacent to or connected with the essential oils—and that we try to make these active in the digestive tract and then also in the heart-lung tract, so that we stimulate kidney function in the organism and thereby support the plastic forces. It is of great importance, especially for this disease, that we be able to address the digestive system.

[ 30 ] Kidney function and perspiration are, in a certain sense, polar opposites, yet they are intimately connected. And we will always be able to observe that when kidney function is not properly engaged in the process I have just described to you, there is also a decline in sweating. And we should actually pay close attention to this decline in sweating. For wherever this is not in order, kidney function is also not in order. And as a rule, when sweating activity declines, kidney function is such that it is like a machine that has nothing to process yet remains active, while what comes from food has already accumulated and is spreading in an improper manner throughout the human organism. And if we succeed, through external or internal sulfur treatments—we can act from both sides here, since we can work both through the skin and through the kidneys— — to stimulate the digestive tract so strongly that it, in turn, stimulates heart and lung function, so that kidney function can then capture and process the material, ensuring that it does not remain stagnant but is instead channeled into the kidney function, then we can indeed succeed in overcoming metabolic diseases as well.

[ 31 ] But in all of this, we must be very clear that what we are really dealing with in the human organism is not, I would say, something that wants to be completely healed, but rather something that simply wants to be stimulated toward healing. This is of immense importance. When in a state of illness, the human organism actually wants to be stimulated toward healing. And if we want to ensure lasting healing, we must actually limit ourselves to providing stimuli for healing. For a healing process that appears to proceed smoothly is more likely to lead to relapses than an illness that has been stimulated toward healing. The organism first becomes accustomed to the healing process and continues it through its own activity. In this way, it connects with it much more intimately until the reaction resumes. But first, a kind of adjustment takes place. And if we adapt ourselves within our organism to the healing process for a time, that is the very best healing. For in this way, the organism truly absorbs what has been imparted to it during the healing process.

[ 32 ] In this way, I have been able to offer you only a few methodological suggestions, but as you can see, what I call the “Spiritual Science examination of physiology, pathology, and therapy” is is really about taking seriously the fact that human beings are not isolated beings, but belong to the entire cosmos, and that for any process taking place within a human being in a certain direction—let’s say, along an upward curve—one must look for the corresponding downward curve outside the human being. In this way, we will be able to counterbalance curves that are rising too steeply, and so on. Medicine is, after all, something that requires, in a certain sense, that one already knows the whole world. For I could, of course, give you only a tiny glimpse, but this tiny glimpse will make you realize that you must come to know Urtica dioica, Colchicum autumnale, or any plant in a completely different way than is required today. You must observe the plant to see where it is heading in its downward trend.

[ 33 ] So if you come across Colchicum autumnale, you must realize that, first of all, the season in which Colchicum autumnale appears has a certain significance for the entire structure. This establishes a certain connection to the process of devitalization. You can see from the color of the flower and from the season that a very slight devitalization takes place with Colchicum autumnale. When you then conduct experiments to see how Colchicum autumnale might help, you will find that the organism must exert itself to a great extent to bring about the opposite vitalizing effect—that is, first to kill the plant and then to bring it back to life, if I may put it in simple terms. And this entire process takes place all the way up to the human thyroid gland. You can now conduct a series of experiments to determine how Colchicum autumnale can be used as a remedy for an enlarged thyroid.

[ 34 ] Truly, the point is not to rail against today’s scientific methods in a wild, amateurish way, but rather to point out directions that will actually lead to a more practical application than mere trial and error. I do not mean to say that mere trial and error cannot also lead to the desired results. It does lead to results. But much escapes us entirely. In particular, much of what we observe in nature escapes us. It is, after all, beneficial—even if one can synthesize a compound consisting of iron, sulfur, and alkali—to know how nature itself has synthetically combined these elements in a specific plant in a certain way, so that one can learn an extraordinary amount for synthetic production by understanding what is happening out there in nature.

[ 35 ] Well, it would certainly be very appealing to go into detail on some of these points. I think our physician friends may have done just that in one or two of the lectures. Some of it can also be found in our literature. As for other things, I would very much like to see them appear in our literature quite soon. For I am convinced that as soon as these matters appear in our literature in a clear and vivid presentation—without anyone being embarrassed to tackle them head-on—people will come to see things this way: Well, I have to heal after all if I want to be a doctor, and so I’ll turn even to what I initially find unappealing; if it helps, then I’ll have no choice but to incorporate what’s written in the literature as well. And so I think it would be good if, as soon as possible, we had literature that bridges the gap between Spiritual Science and empirical science. That will help us arrive at the conclusion: “Yes, it does help, so it can’t be all that bad.” — And I am fully convinced that once things are properly underway, the conclusion will emerge: “It helps!” — And that is what I would actually like to rely on. Try it, and you’ll see—it will help. And that will certainly be of some importance, for even among the treatments used by conventional medicine, there is much that does not help. And in the struggle between what does not help and what does, the outcome will have to be precisely what we so earnestly hope for from the perspective of Spiritual Science.