A strange thing happens when people gradually enter into the science of the spirit. If they are doing the exercises - or not even doing the exercises which will make them into spiritual investigators but make serious efforts to gain real understanding of the science - they will one day have clairvoyant vision. It may be a long time before they have clairvoyant vision, but they will have it. If you let the science of the spirit influence your soul, you will find that the instincts of life, the more unconscious mainsprings of life, change in the soul. You do not become active in the science of the spirit without it having an influence on the life of instincts, so that it will have different sympathies and antipathies, be filled with light, and feel more secure than it did before.
This may be noticed in every sphere of life. If you are clumsy with your hands, for instance, and become an anthroposophist, you will find that, without having done anything but receive the science of the spirit, you become more skillful, even in the way you use your hands. Do not say: I know some anthroposophists who are very clumsy; they are far from skillful.' Consider instead how far these individuals have not yet truly made the science of the spirit part of their inner lives, to the extent their karma requires. You may be a painter and have mastered the art of painting up to a point. When you become an anthroposophist, you will find that the influences of which I am speaking flow into the way you instinctively perform the art. You find it easier to mix your colors, and the ideas you seek come more readily. If you are an academic person and supposed to do some scientific work (many who are in this situation will know how much effort it takes to collect the literature), when you become an anthroposophist you no longer go to libraries and borrow many volumes; instead, you will immediately lay your hands on the book you want. Spiritual science has a direct influence on your life; it changes your instincts and gives new mainsprings that make you more skillful.
What I am going to say must, of course, always be seen in connection with human karma, for human beings are always subject to karma. However, even if we take this into account, the following is nevertheless true: someone who has entered into the science of the spirit contracts a particular disease and it lies in his karma that he can be cured. It may, of course, be his karma that the disease is incurable. If we are faced with an illness, karma never says in a fatalistic way that it has to take a particular course. The disease can be cured or it cannot be cured. Someone who has steeped himself in Anthroposophy acquires an inner instinct which helps him meet the disease and its accompanying weaknesses with something that will strengthen him and be right for the situation. What would otherwise be experienced as the consequences of the disease, in the world of the spirit will work back into the soul as an instinct while you are still in the physical body. You will either prevent the disease or inwardly find your way to the powers that heal.
Clairvoyant consciousness finds the right healing factors for an illness. The clairvoyant individual is able to have an image of the disease before him: here is the disease; it weakens the human being in this particular way. Having clairvoyant consciousness, the individual perceives the counter image, the mood of overcoming illness and the growing strength welling up from that mood. He sees the compensation which will come to the individual who had the illness in the physical world once he is in the world of the spirit. The clairvoyant is able to give advice based on this. You do not even have to be fully clairvoyant; the advice to be given may come instinctively from observing the signs of the disease. The process which brings to clairvoyant consciousness the compensation which will come in the world of the spirit belongs to the signs and symptoms of the disease just as much as the upward swing of the pendulum on one side belongs to its upward swing on the other side.
This example shows the connection between the physical plane and the world of the spirit and how fruitful knowledge of that world can be for the conduct of life on the physical plane.
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"....If at a certain period people were not able to conceive certain measures against epidemics, these were times at which men could not do so because, according to the general wise world plan, the epidemics had to take effect in order to give human souls an opportunity of balancing what had been effected through the ahrimanic influence and certain earlier luciferic influences. If other conditions are now being brought about, these too are subject to certain great karmic laws. So we see that these matters cannot be regarded superficially.
How does this agree with our statement that if someone seeks an opportunity of being infected in an epidemic, this is the result of the necessary reaction against an earlier karmic cause. Have we the right now to take hygienic or other measures?
This is a profound question, and we must begin by collecting the necessary material for replying to it. We must understand that where the luciferic and ahrimanic principles are co-operating, whether concurrently or over longer periods, or where they are working against each other, there are manifested certain complications in human life. These complications appear under forms so diverse that we never see two identical cases.
If we study human life, however, we shall find our way in the following manner: if in a particular case we try to discover the combined activity of Lucifer and Ahriman, we shall always find a thread by which this connection will become clear. We must discriminate clearly between internal and external man....
....Let us suppose that a great number of people, because of uncharitableness, had been impelled to absorb certain infectious germs, so that they succumbed to an epidemic. Let us further suppose we were in a position to protect them from this epidemic. We should in such a case preserve the physical body from the effects of uncharitableness, but we should not have removed the inner tendency towards uncharitableness. The case might be such that, in removing the external expression of uncharitableness, we should undertake the duty of influencing the soul also in such a way as to remove from it the tendency towards a lack of charity.
The organic expression of uncharitableness is killed in the most complete sense, in the external bodily sense, by vaccination against smallpox. There, for instance, the following becomes manifest, and has been investigated by Spiritual Science. In one period of civilisation, when there prevailed a general tendency to develop a higher degree of egotism, and uncharitableness, smallpox made its appearance. Such is the fact. In anthroposophy it is our bounded duty to give expression to the truth.
Now it will be clear why in our period the protection of vaccination appeared. We also understand why, among the best minds of our period, there exists a kind of aversion to vaccination. This aversion corresponds to something within, and is the external expression of an inner reality. So if on the one hand we destroy the physical expression of a previous fault, we should, on the other hand, undertake the duty of transforming the materialistic character of such a person by means of a corresponding spiritual education. This would constitute the indispensable counterpart, without which we are performing only half our task.
We are merely accomplishing something to which the person in question will himself have to produce a counterpart in a later incarnation. If we destroy the susceptibility to smallpox, we are concentrating only on the external side of karmic activity.
If on the one side we go in for hygiene, it is necessary that on the other we should feel it our duty to contribute to the person whose organism has been so transformed, something also for the good of his soul.
Vaccination will not be harmful if, subsequent to vaccination, the person receives a spiritual education. If we concentrate upon one side only and lay no emphasis upon the other, we weigh down the balance unevenly. This is really what is felt in those circles which maintain that where hygienic measures go too far, only weak natures will be propagated.
This of course is not justifiable, but we see how essential it is that we should not undertake one task without the other...."
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100525p01.html
Original title: Krankheitsschicksal und innerer Entwicklungsweg des Menschen. Der Merkurstab 1996; 49:339-41. From a lecture given by Rudolf Steiner on 12 April 1914, in: Steiner, R. Inner Nature of Man and tlie Life Between Death and Rebirth. Tr. D. Osmond, C. Davey. Revised A. R. Meuss. Bristol: Rudolf Steiner Press 1994.)
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..If on the one hand we see in the destruction of an organ the beneficent activity of spiritual powers, and if we have found to-day that the whole course of Earth evolution must be rectified by forces springing from the ancient Moon existence, we must now ask how it is that we as Earth men on the other hand must try to rectify the harmful influences of the ancient Moon forces. We already feel that as Earth men we have not the right to wish for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, nor may we ourselves destroy organs in order to assist the beneficent effect of the ancient Moon forces.
But we can also admit, and justifiably, that should an epidemic break out, it will lead man to seek for the balancing of some imperfection within himself, and we may surmise that man is driven into certain conditions in order to suffer some injury, the conquest of which will draw him nearer to perfection.
What then of hygienic and sanitary measures? Might not someone say: ‘If epidemics may prove beneficial, is it then not wrong to take measures conducive to health and preventive of disease?’ One might arrive at the conclusion that nothing should be done to obviate natural catastrophes and that this conclusion is entirely supported by our lectures of yesterday and today.
We shall see that this is not the case, yet again only on certain conditions. For only now are we rightly prepared to understand in our next discussion how on the one hand beneficial forces may cause injury to an organ, so that we may escape the effect of Maya, and yet, on the other hand, to become conscious of the effect we produce by the use of sanitary and hygienic measures against disease.
We shall see that we have here arrived at a case which so often arises where there is an apparent contradiction, and where we are impelled by the entire force of this contradiction. In such a case we are nearer to the point at which the ahrimanic powers may exert the greatest influence upon us. At no time is the danger of illusion greater than when we have reached such a deadlock. For we now say that the forces which render an organ useless are beneficent forces because they work in opposition to Ahriman; therefore those who take steps against disease are working against humanity, for hygienic measures would limit this beneficial reaction.
We have reached a deadlock, and it is well that we have been led into this contradiction so that we may reflect upon the fact that such are possible, and may even constitute good discipline for our mind. For when we have seen how we can draw ourselves by our own initiative out of this seeming contradiction, then we shall have arrived at a result by which we may fortify ourselves against the illusions of Ahriman....."
https://wn.rsarchive.org/.../Eng.../RSP1984/19100522p01.html
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..What happens, however, when the liver's activity is too weak? The blood's activity on the surface of the skin is not compensated for. The blood, which flows everywhere, wishes to be compensated, and the blood in the liver investigates, as it were, whether or not the liver is behaving properly. If the liver isn't behaving properly, the blood rushes to the surface of the body to replenish itself there.
What happens? Smallpox is the result. This is the connection between smallpox and the blood circulation, which, due to a defective liver, has something wrong with it.
The blood reaches everywhere where I have drawn a line in blue (see sketch); there is also a red line signifying that oxygen from the air reaches everywhere. The circulation of the blood rightly makes a point of contact there with the breathing, and whether this occurs in the lungs or the skin really does not matter, because it balances itself out. If the air that enters through the breathing process does not make contact with the blood in the correct way, however, smallpox results.
What is smallpox? Smallpox is really the result of the development of too much respiratory activity on the body's surface or in the lungs. A person becomes too active on his surface area, and this activity causes inflammation everywhere.
What can be done under these circumstances? Well, people already do the only thing that can be done in such cases. They vaccinate with cowpox vaccine. What is really accomplished through cowpox vaccine? The vaccine inwardly permeates the body, because the blood circulates everywhere. Whereas the blood is otherwise compensated for on the body's surface, it now has to cope with the vaccine.
The overactivity on the surface thus is prevented. Smallpox inoculation does indeed have a certain significance. The blood, which is not properly engaged by the liver, is now busy with the vaccine.
Generally, there is good reason for all methods of inoculation. You have perhaps heard that a large part of our healing is based on inoculation, because an activity occurring in the wrong place can thereby be directed to another part of the human body...."
https://wn.rsarchive.org/.../English/AP1983/19230127a01.html
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..If on the one hand we see in the destruction of an organ the beneficent activity of spiritual powers, and if we have found to-day that the whole course of Earth evolution must be rectified by forces springing from the ancient Moon existence, we must now ask how it is that we as Earth men on the other hand must try to rectify the harmful influences of the ancient Moon forces. We already feel that as Earth men we have not the right to wish for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, nor may we ourselves destroy organs in order to assist the beneficent effect of the ancient Moon forces.
But we can also admit, and justifiably, that should an epidemic break out, it will lead man to seek for the balancing of some imperfection within himself, and we may surmise that man is driven into certain conditions in order to suffer some injury, the conquest of which will draw him nearer to perfection.
What then of hygienic and sanitary measures? Might not someone say: ‘If epidemics may prove beneficial, is it then not wrong to take measures conducive to health and preventive of disease?’ One might arrive at the conclusion that nothing should be done to obviate natural catastrophes and that this conclusion is entirely supported by our lectures of yesterday and today.
We shall see that this is not the case, yet again only on certain conditions. For only now are we rightly prepared to understand in our next discussion how on the one hand beneficial forces may cause injury to an organ, so that we may escape the effect of Maya, and yet, on the other hand, to become conscious of the effect we produce by the use of sanitary and hygienic measures against disease.
We shall see that we have here arrived at a case which so often arises where there is an apparent contradiction, and where we are impelled by the entire force of this contradiction. In such a case we are nearer to the point at which the ahrimanic powers may exert the greatest influence upon us. At no time is the danger of illusion greater than when we have reached such a deadlock. For we now say that the forces which render an organ useless are beneficent forces because they work in opposition to Ahriman; therefore those who take steps against disease are working against humanity, for hygienic measures would limit this beneficial reaction.
We have reached a deadlock, and it is well that we have been led into this contradiction so that we may reflect upon the fact that such are possible, and may even constitute good discipline for our mind. For when we have seen how we can draw ourselves by our own initiative out of this seeming contradiction, then we shall have arrived at a result by which we may fortify ourselves against the illusions of Ahriman....."
https://wn.rsarchive.org/.../Eng.../RSP1984/19100522p01.html
****
..What happens, however, when the liver's activity is too weak? The blood's activity on the surface of the skin is not compensated for. The blood, which flows everywhere, wishes to be compensated, and the blood in the liver investigates, as it were, whether or not the liver is behaving properly. If the liver isn't behaving properly, the blood rushes to the surface of the body to replenish itself there.
What happens? Smallpox is the result. This is the connection between smallpox and the blood circulation, which, due to a defective liver, has something wrong with it.
The blood reaches everywhere where I have drawn a line in blue (see sketch); there is also a red line signifying that oxygen from the air reaches everywhere. The circulation of the blood rightly makes a point of contact there with the breathing, and whether this occurs in the lungs or the skin really does not matter, because it balances itself out. If the air that enters through the breathing process does not make contact with the blood in the correct way, however, smallpox results.
What is smallpox? Smallpox is really the result of the development of too much respiratory activity on the body's surface or in the lungs. A person becomes too active on his surface area, and this activity causes inflammation everywhere.
What can be done under these circumstances? Well, people already do the only thing that can be done in such cases. They vaccinate with cowpox vaccine. What is really accomplished through cowpox vaccine? The vaccine inwardly permeates the body, because the blood circulates everywhere. Whereas the blood is otherwise compensated for on the body's surface, it now has to cope with the vaccine.
The overactivity on the surface thus is prevented. Smallpox inoculation does indeed have a certain significance. The blood, which is not properly engaged by the liver, is now busy with the vaccine.
Generally, there is good reason for all methods of inoculation. You have perhaps heard that a large part of our healing is based on inoculation, because an activity occurring in the wrong place can thereby be directed to another part of the human body...."
https://wn.rsarchive.org/.../English/AP1983/19230127a01.html
If we dive down within us, we'll find a lot of beings there.
This may seem strange to us at first, but the more we learn to look into spiritual worlds, the more we'll see that a number of spiritual beings are working in us — often to undo the destruction that we men bring about through foolishness.
Let's ask ourselves where disease comes from. We know that every disease has a physical cause and also a spiritual one that must be looked for in immorality, passions or other mistakes in this existence but mostly in the previous one.
But there's another reason why disease is something beneficial.
Since the Lemurian epoch and on through Atlantis until the Mystery of Golgotha, mankind sank every more deeply into matter. Through the fact that we follow our drives and passions, we were brought ever further away form the goals that the Gods set for us. Disease is what bends this downward impulse and gives us an upward direction again.
Rudolf Steiner
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