Christ as the Source of Forces that Are Leading towards True Healing of Human Diseases

In the last three years of his earthly life, after his baptism in Jordan and before his death on Golgotha, Jesus Christ had performed many miraculous healings. At times “He healed around eighty to a hundred people a day. Blind, lame and deaf people came to him, and we read in the Bible of people with gout, dropsy or those possessed by demons.” [1] All this was possible because “people who came to Christ had the firm faith and conviction that through him was working the impulse which can drive away the demons” [2] from their bodies.

This strong faith enabled, “through Christ’s presence, to expose the sick to the healing cosmic forces. These healing forces could be effective only under the appropriate conditions of space and time. In other words, the forces of the cosmos worked on the sick through their representative, Christ. When sick people remained for a while by Christ’s side, their nearness to Christ brought them into such relationship to the macrocosm that this had a healing effect on them.” [3] That is why these healings are justifiably called ‘miracles’, for “the miraculous is nothing other than the penetration of a higher world into our own” [4] earthly world.

This method of healing “could work only while Christ was on Earth. Only then were the cosmic constellations so connected to the forces in the human organism that certain diseases could be cured when these constellations worked on individuals through Christ Jesus.” [5] If we want to understand what in our time the right approach to the healing of diseases with the help of forces working from and through the being of Christ is, we need first to understand the primeval origins of human diseases.

The Primordial Spiritual Causes for
the Emergence of Human Suffering and Illnesses

When we study the descriptions of cosmic evolution in the works of Rudolf Steiner we can notice a wondrous richness of activities performed by diverse beings of spiritual hierarchies with the aim to create suitable conditions for the development of various human bodies. First on Old Saturn the Spirits of Will (Thrones) donated their warmth substance for the creation of the human physical body; then on Old Sun the Spirits of Wisdom (Kyriotetes) donated their substance for the creation of the human etheric body; and on Old Moon the Spirits of Movement (Dynamis) donated their substance for the creation of the human astral body. And in the present stage the Spirits of Form (Elohim/Exusiai) bestowed their substance for the creation of the human ego. However, in the preparations of these bodies there have been also participating – in manifold manners that were changing with each transition to the next stage of cosmic evolution – all other beings of the spiritual hierarchies: Seraphim (Spirits of Love), Cherubim (Spirits of Harmony), Archai, Archangels and Angels.

If we focus now on the physical vehicle itself we see that “in a primordial past the first germ of man’s physical body was brought into existence by spiritual beings. To this was added the etheric body, then the astral body, and finally the ego. The physical body of man has thus passed through four evolutionary stages. First of all the physical body existed in direct correspondence with the spiritual world, then it was elaborated, permeated and interwoven with the etheric body, and grew more complicated. Then it was permeated by the astral body and grew more complicated still. Then the ego was added, and only when the ego had worked on the physical body was a portion transformed into the vehicle of so-called ‘human consciousness’, the faculty by which man acquires a knowledge of the external world.” [6]

In the present stage our Earth passed first through the repetition of the condition of Old Saturn when only the element of fire/warmth existed. Then it passed through the repetition of the Old Sun when the element of air came into existence. And in the repetition of the Old Moon the fluid element was added. Therefore at the end of these repetitions there existed only three elements: warmth, air, and fluid. For that reason “our Earth as a whole was more like an organism, a spiritually etheric being. It was permeated with all kinds of ordered currents, and was more like a living being.” [7] And human beings at that time “did not yet feel themselves as separate entities, but as though embedded within the body of divine spiritual beings – connected by innumerable threads with the rest of the whole Earth.” [8]

This was the state of ‘paradise’ when we still lived in the ‘womb of the Godhead’ and when all higher hierarchies were providing for all our needs in the best possible ways. At that time “all influence that came from the surroundings was spiritually godlike. Human beings were really organised in such a way that they were a likeness of the spiritual beings hovering round them in their environment – images of the gods who in older times were present on Earth.” [9]

For that reason “in those ancient times what we call illness did not exist. There was no inner disposition to illness, and it could not be there because everything that was in man and that worked upon him came from the health giving divine-spiritual cosmos. The divine-spiritual beings are full of health, and in those days they made men in their image. Man was healthy” [10] and nothing existed that could cause pain or suffering.

But then in the Lemurian age [11] there happened something that radically transformed this paradisal state. “Into the development of humanity penetrated the forces we call ‘luciferic’, which belong to beings who remained behind during the Old Moon evolution, and who did not advance far enough to reach, as it were, the normal point of their development. By that means was implanted into the astral body of man, before his ego could work in the proper manner, a principle which streamed from these luciferic beings. So the influence of these beings was once exercised on man’s astral body, and he has retained it throughout his further evolution.” [12] In esoteric language this great change is called ‘the fall (or expulsion) from paradise’.

One of the important consequences of luciferic forces was that “man had within him that which led him to be less perfect than he would otherwise have been if such influence had not come. It also gave him the tendency to act and judge more from his emotions, passions and desires, than he would have done if the luciferic influence had not entered. This influence produced a change in the individuality of man who became more subject to what we may call ‘world of desire’ than would otherwise have been the case. Through the luciferic influence man has entered more into his body and has identified himself more with it, for if the influence of the luciferic beings had not been there, many of the things that tempt man to desire this or that would not have come. Man would have been quite indifferent to these temptations. But temptations of the external world of the senses came through this influence of Lucifer, and man yielded to them.” [13]

This was not the only influence to which man yielded to. “The fact that luciferic influence had penetrated into his astral body made the whole of the external world into which he entered appear different to him. Lucifer entered into the inner being of man, who then saw the world around him through Lucifer. His vision of the earthly world was thereby clouded and his external impressions were mingled with what we call ‘the ahrimanic influence’. Ahriman could only infiltrate himself and make the external world into illusion because we had previously created from within the tendency towards illusion and maya. Thus the ahrimanic influence which came into the external world was a consequence of the luciferic influence. We may say that when once the luciferic forces were there, man entangled himself more in the sense-world than he would have done without this influence; but by that means he absorbed the ahrimanic influence with every external perception. Thus in the human individuality which goes through incarnations on the Earth, there is a luciferic influence, and, as a result of this, the ahrimanic influence. These two powers are continually fighting in the human individuality which has become their field of battle.” [14]

If we want to grasp the effects of Lucifer and Ahriman in an unprejudiced manner we must “conceive of this fall from paradise as something that has been woven into human destiny for the sake of the freeing of mankind. We could never have become free beings had we not been thrust downwards; we should have been tied to the strings of a world order which we should have been obliged to follow blindly.” [15] Nevertheless, in the present age there is an urgent need – if we want to safeguard our freedom – to know these beings and their rightful domains of activities and dangers which are possible if they trespass into domains not belonging to them. This is of paramount importance especially in regard to human health and occurrences of diseases.

The Inner Disposition to Illnesses as Karmic
Consequences of Moral Errors in Previous Lives

In the Lemurian age when man received his ego he was still like a little child which possesses within many soul-spiritual capacities but cannot use them yet. For a child’s physical body needs to develop first to become a suitable instrument for own thinking, feelings and impulses of will. And as the child needs for own development much time and care from parents and other adults, so the Lemurian humans needed abundant help from spiritual beings. In such a childhood state people of that time were not capable of defending against the impacts “proceeding from the luciferic principle. So it came about that in his first incarnation on Earth man succumbed to the temptations of the luciferic principle, and carried these attractions with him into later lives. We can say that the way in which he succumbed to the temptations of the luciferic principle, became an integral part of his karma.” [16]

In which manner are these luciferic temptations working? “What a man does in ordinary life proceeds from the impulses of his feelings, emotions, natural urges, and desires; he gets angry and does certain things out of anger; or he loves in the ordinary way and his actions are prompted by this emotion. We need to admit that in what a man does out of passions, anger, or ordinary love, there is an element that defies all abstract definition. Yet there is a word which describes the reasons for the actions of a man in ordinary life – it is the word personality. This word embraces all the indefinable factors. When we have really understood a man’s personality, then we may be able to judge why it was that he developed this or that passion, this or that desire, or whatever it may be. Everything that is done out of these impulses bears a personal character.” [17]

If we want to grasp how behaviour of human personality leads to an emergence of a disease we need first to examine how “through purely individual motives we come into touch with the outer world in various ways. These contacts react and make an impression upon our astral body, and as a consequence of the interaction between our astral body and etheric body, both are influenced by these reactions. Thus if a person leads a dissolute life in any respect it will make an impression on his astral body which in its turn influences the etheric body. How it will do this will depend upon what has been laid down in the astral body. Therefore we shall now be able to understand that the etheric body of man alters, according to how he leads this or that life within the limits of good or evil, right or wrong, truth or falsehood, etc. All these exercise an influence on the etheric body” [18] – more precisely, on that part of the etheric body which forms the foundation for our conscious life of thinking, feeling and willing.

Contrary to this, that part of the etheric body which regulates unconscious life processes in our organism is much more stable. The wise guidance of the human evolution set up “a clear limitation to what can be achieved by development in the life between birth and death. Development between birth and death is essentially restricted to experiences of the soul; it cannot extend to the physical level. The inner structures and forms of the physical and etheric bodies cannot be altered by the human being” [19] within the lifespan of one incarnation. Hence we have the rule that “when a person between birth and death sins against morality in following Lucifer, or against logic or sound thinking in following Ahriman, that concerns only his ordinary conscious soul life” [20] which cannot penetrate into the foundations of his etheric-physical constitution.

It is different “when man passes through the portal of death and a different form of consciousness begins; then, all the things which in the life between birth and death were submitted to the moral or rational judgement, penetrate into the foundation of the human being, into that which organises the next existence and imprints itself into the plastic forces, which then construct a threefold (astral, etheric and physical) human body.

Errors resulting from devotion to Ahriman develop into forces of disease which affect man through his etheric body.
Faults which were the result of a moral judgement between birth and death develop into causes of disease which work more from the astral body.” [21] These faults are consequences of devotion to Lucifer.

Thus we can see that only with the knowledge of karma and reincarnation can we really understand the emergence of the inner predisposition to specific diseases in the case of people. Therefore talk of medical science about ‘inherited diseases’ is not completely wrong. But when it is promising to eradicate them by repairing the ‘faulty’ genes, it must be clear to us that this is only a futile attempt to work against the law of karma that says:

“What lives as joy, pain, happiness, sorrow in the astral body appears again in the etheric body;
the lasting impulses and passions that are rooted in the etheric body appear in the physical body as constitutional tendencies;
deeds that require the agency of the physical body appear as outer destiny in the next incarnation.

What the astral body does becomes the destiny of the etheric body; what the etheric body does becomes the destiny of the physical body; and what the physical body does comes back from outside in the next incarnation as a physical reality.” [22]

With this law we are touching upon the deepest mysteries of human existence that can be grasped in all of its ramifications only after prolonged study of spiritual science. This is evident also from the following example presented by Steiner: “If a person lives a superficial life in one incarnation – a fickle life which knows neither devotion nor love – this expresses itself in the tendency to lying in the next incarnation. Such particular tendency towards telling lies proceeds from a deeper organisation of the soul; for if a person only follows what is in his most conscious life he will not really lie. It is only emotions and feelings which work up out of his subconsciousness which lead him to this. Here again we have something deeper.

If a person is untruthful, the actions which proceed from untruthfulness will arouse the most forcible feelings against himself in the life after death, and as a consequence a profound tendency against lying will appear. He will then bring with him into the next life not only a weak organisation but organisation which is incorrectly built, so to speak, and which manifests irregularly formed inner organs in the finer organisation of the body. Something is there which does not agree with it and this is due to the previous tendency to lying.

Thus we can karmically trace the effects in three consecutive incarnations: superficiality and fickleness in the first incarnation, the tendency to lying in the second, and the physical disposition to disease in the third incarnation.” [23] However this doesn’t mean that everything is set in stone – for the final outcome depends on the people’s decisions either to continue to follow Lucifer and Ahriman in their new life or to enter on the path to recovery from ‘original sins’ with the help of forces that emanate from the Mystery of Golgotha.

Christ as a Source of Power that Enables the Control of Luciferic and Ahrimanic Influences in the Domain of Human Health

From the description of the events in the evolution of humanity that have decisively changed the nature of our astral and etheric bodies we can conclude that luciferic and ahrimanic forces became an integral part of our human constitution. Since the ‘fall from the paradise’ “experiences deriving from the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman are constantly playing into human life” [24] both on the psychological and physiological levels.

On the psychological level – “in morality, in logic and in all the activity of the soul – Lucifer and Ahriman are working one upon the other, and man stands at the boundary between them.” [25] Influences of Lucifer manifest mainly in the life of wishes, our sympathies or antipathies, while influences of Ahriman are mainly expressed in the various forms of materialistic conception of the world.

On the physiological level it can be found by means of clairvoyant vision that “the very form of man’s body is a result of the cooperation of Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers.” [26] But we don’t need to be clairvoyant to realize that it is very “important in the present age to recognize this cooperation between Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers; for only by such recognition can we gradually learn to understand the forces that are at work behind the external apparition of existence. We should be aware that we have no occasion either to hate Ahriman or to fear Lucifer, since their powers are hostile only when they are working outside the realm where they belong.” [27] Therefore it should be clear to us that “in their rightfully allotted place, Lucifer and Ahriman work beneficially; in their wrongful place they are injurious.” [28]

This is especially evident in the case of human health and disease. Spiritual investigation reveals how “the two principles – the ahrimanic and the luciferic – are at work at the very foundation of a disease. In fact, it can be pointed out in many ways that in the various forms of disease one distinguishes essentially two types, the ahrimanic and the luciferic.” [29] Ahriman is “the originator of all physical diseases; not those caused by external injuries, but of all organic diseases that arise spontaneously from within.” [30] And Lucifer “is the originator of all neuro-psychological and neurotic diseases; all diseases which are not really diseases at all but merely, as one says, nervous diseases, hysterical diseases and so on.” [31]

Here we have the basic distinction between origins of physical and mental illnesses, although we need to be aware that there are further distinctions between ahrimanic and luciferic influences inside these two basic groups. Besides this we need to distinguish between ahrimanic and luciferic influences in the astral, etheric and physical body, in various systems and organs of human organism and in various stages of human life from childhood to old age. Therefore it should be obvious why a lengthy study of medicine from materialistic and anthroposophical perspectives is required if one wishes to gain a proper understanding of all influences that contribute to the occurrence of diverse forms of illnesses.

But for those of us who want to take responsibility for our own health it is necessary to attain basic “knowledge of the ahrimanic and luciferic forces which could destroy the human organism. For Ahriman hardens human beings, while Lucifer wishes to dissolve and evaporate them. In all this the forces that make for illness reside. The threatening Luciferic influence and the threatening Ahrimanic influence belongs to the inner being of the nature-forces. But standing over against them is the healing principle that rays out from Christ.” [32] Here we are dealing with the polarity between forces of materialisation and dematerialisation that are enabling the coming into and the end of existence of all living beings. These forces are continually active in the nature and are entering into human being via sense perceptions, breathing and nutrition. If these polar forces are in balance, then we are healthy; when they become excessive in any part of our organism, then we get ‘dis-eased’.

Why can Christ help us to guard against harmful impacts of Lucifer and Ahriman? In the remote past “men were able to lead a spiritual life approximating far more closely to the divine than is possible today. They were nearer to the divine-spiritual and divine-spiritual life shone with greater strength into the human soul. It must not, however, be forgotten that the descent into the material-physical world was necessary, because their whole consciousness was less lucid, but at the same time inwoven with divine-spiritual thoughts, feelings and will-impulses. Man was nearer to the divine-spiritual but more like a dreaming child than a fully wide-awake, conscious human being.

Man has descended insofar as he has acquired the faculty of judgment necessary in physical life, namely, reason. Therewith he has descended from the heights of divine-spiritual existence and has become more clearly conscious of himself – has found a firm centre within his own being. In order to work his way upwards again he must fill this inner kernel of his life of soul with what has been brought by the Christ impulse. And the more his soul is filled with the Christ impulse, the higher he will ascend again into the divine-spiritual world, reaching it not as a being with dreamy, hazy consciousness, but as a being looking into the world with alert consciousness” [33] – with crystal-clear awake consciousness.

The inner kernel of our personality and our soul life is our ego strengthened by means of the Christ impulse. This is particularly evident from the Gospel of St. Luke where the author gives “special prominence to descriptions of the healings, with the aim to show how the healing influences proceeding from the ego indicate the attainment of a lofty level in the evolutionary process. He shows how Christ worked upon the astral body, the etheric body and the physical body of man. St. Luke has set before us this great ideal of evolution: Look towards your future! Your ego, in the present stage of its development, is still weak; as yet it has little mastery. But ego will gradually become master of the astral body, the etheric body and the physical body, and will transform them. Before you is set the great ideal of Christ who reveals to mankind what this mastery can mean” [34] – especially in regard to health.

For the Christ’s “individuality had an influence upon the secrets of the astral body and the etheric body – even upon those of the physical body. Jesus Christ shows that He is able to see into the very depths of the physical corporeality and to work into it. This is revealed by the fact that his power is also able to have a healing effect upon illnesses rooted in the physical body. Thus we are shown quite clearly how the Christ-Ego worked upon all the other members of man’s being” [35] – on the astral body, etheric body and physical body.

In the present stage of human evolution our main task is to work consciously on the transformation of the astral body in which lie the origins of all sufferings that “must come upon us because we have passed through incarnations under the influence of the forces of Lucifer since the beginning of earthly evolution – and all that we must experience in the spiritual worlds because, under Lucifer’s influence, we alienated ourselves from the creating powers of the world.” [36] For that reason it is not surprising that “the deepest causes of illness lie in the astral body and in its bad effects on the etheric body, and by way of the etheric body on the physical body.” [37]

We can now overcome the ‘original sin’ of the astral body because “by energizing and strengthening of our own being through the Christ impulse, we draw into ourselves the force that can accomplish this transformation.” [38] And we can gain access to Christ because the higher spiritual hierarchies sent to us the Mystery of Golgotha as a compensation for all negative consequences caused by impacts of luciferic beings about whom “we could not at that time [at the Fall from Paradise] – acting as it were with full moral responsibility – choose whether we would or would not follow” [39] them. Consequently “redemption and catharsis were made possible through the mystery enacted in the baptism by John in the Jordan and then through the Mystery of Golgotha.” [40]

Since this event “the task before man is to unfold a higher personality. This is the Christ-personality whom he can draw and receive into himself.” [41] This is necessary because “the healing power of Christ can work only when this strength comes to expression in the ego of man.” [42] In ancient Mystery centres the healing was performed in such a manner that “human souls, rising above the ego, came into a world of spirit and then the spiritual was bestowed upon them for their healing. In earlier times man had been in much closer connection with the spiritual world and in states of ecstasy he could find the way to the spiritual world. But entry into the spiritual world now was to be through the ego” [43] – that is, by means of the conscious cognition of the spiritual worlds.

Nowadays when we are witnessing the dominance of orthodox materialistic medicine that is bordering upon tyranny, it is hard to imagine “that materialistic medicine will have no basis in the future. This seems at present like a mere fantasy, but it is actually something that will soon come about.” [44] But this will happen only if enough “human beings will became aware that with their whole being they are embedded in a real spiritual world filled with real spiritual beings and real spiritual forces.” [45] In this way the spiritual core of our being, the ‘I’, will become so strong that it will be capable of overcoming even the inherited karmic tendencies of the physical organism that contribute to numerous modern diseases. For “the physical can only possess overwhelming power as long as a man does not build the strength in his spiritual nature. If he does this, a warrior will grow up within him, a warrior who will defend him against the physical” [46] tendencies towards illnesses which are not the result only of his past errors but also errors of his ancestors in the genealogical lines of generations.

Of course, “we cannot hope that this should come about from one day to the next. But those who have the right understanding of things will gradually learn the anthroposophical view of phenomena in face of which man at first seems powerless. What is not equalised in one life is made good in the long run. If we contemplate a single life, as well as life from incarnation to incarnation, we shall see that rightly understood, karma is a law that no longer depresses us, but rather one which brings us comfort and force whereby to make ourselves stronger. The law of karma is a law of life, and we must understand it as such. The point is not that we should know a few single abstract thoughts, but that we should study the life-truths of anthroposophy in the details of life, and never get tired of anthroposophical study by means of which we permeate ourselves with its different truths.” [47]

For only in this manner becomes “anthroposophy a life-giving drink, an elixir of life which ever anew pours itself into our souls and of which we know that it will make them grow stronger and stronger.” [48] At the same time we can recognise that even “the salvation of the external physical life will depend on the strengthening which can be acquired through the study of anthroposophy” [49] which enables us to permeate ourselves with the wisdom and power of Christ. For by “having the Christ power within us in consequence of the Mystery of Golgotha, we have a health-giving, healing force within us.” [50] And this is what can give us confidence that in one of our future incarnations our “illnesses will also be extinguished through the healing power of the Christ impulse.” [51] For “the ultimate achievement of medicine is to comprehend all human illnesses in such a way that one sees the course of the Mystery of Golgotha up to death as a tremendous healing process. The pathology of evolving humanity and the therapy, the dying on the cross – these will be seen in their true connection when we have real medicine” [52] based on spiritual scientific understanding of the world and the human being.

❖ The Denial of God, Christ and Spirit Causes Sickness, Calamity and Mental Deficiency

❖ Christ Is the Healer of That Latent Sickness That Can Make a Man Deny the Divine

❖ By Christ the Remedy Has Been Given Us for Suffering, Pain, Old Age, and Death

❖ The Remedy Has Been Given through Christ for All Forms of Suffering Which Buddha Recognized

❖ The Event of Golgotha Signifies the Gradual Elimination of the Buddha’s Forms of Suffering

❖ Through the Power of Christ We Can Receive Guidance for the Healing of Diseases

❖ The Healing of the Astral Body by the Christ Impulse Is the Fullness of Grace

❖ The Christ Impulse Enables Our Etheric Body to Draw from the Sun Sphere the Strengthening Forces

❖ The Christ Impulse Can Balance the Luciferic Head Wisdom and Ahrimanic Bodily Wisdom

❖ Christ Can Heal Only When His Power Comes to Expression through the Ego of Man

❖ The Power of the Christ-Ego Can Penetrate Men So Completely
That Health-Bringing Influences Can Have Impact upon the Whole Organism

❖ Through Inner Experience of Christ We Can Produce an Equilibrium
between Our Egoistic ‘I’ and the Totality of Our Organization

❖ The Healing Effects of Christ-Ego upon All the Other Members of Man’s Being

❖ The Earth-Body of Christ Contains the Healing Force If It Is Permeated by the Logos