Are Viruses and Microbes the Real Culprits in
the Emergence of Deadly Epidemics?
By Brane Žilavec, Christmas 2020
Improved version: 25 July 2021
Are Viruses and Microbes the Real Culprits in
the Emergence of Deadly Epidemics?
By Brane Žilavec, Christmas 2020
Improved version: 25 July 2021
More and more evidence is coming to light that proves that in the case of Covid-19 we are not dealing with an epidemic of a new infectious disease, but with an ‘orchestrated’ one [1] that is providing an excuse to governments to hold people hostage with irrational rules of social distancing, restrictions on medical services and the substantial loss of income across many branches of the economy.
We shouldn’t forget that this development has been accepted by a majority of the population on the basis of fear of a new ‘deadly’ virus, SARS-CoV-2, that is threatening to ‘kill millions’ if we do not comply with all the restrictions. For that reason we will focus on one of the most disputed bones of contention in relation to the pandemic – the question: Is there solid proof that viruses and microbes spread from one person to another and in this manner cause epidemics of so-called infectious diseases?
We Are Surrounded Outside and Inside Us
with Vast Number of Microorganisms and Viruses
If we want to find an answer to this question we need first to direct our attention to the ubiquitous presence of microorganisms and viruses in nature. When by means of modern technology we enter into this world of microscopic life forms, we can feel wonder – as some researchers confess to experiencing – at the rich manifoldness and huge numbers of these tiny creatures. We can even recognize in them a kind of microcosmic reflection of the diversity of living beings that are perceptible to our ordinary senses in the plant and animal kingdoms. For among them we will find “unicellular organisms which are extremely diverse. Microorganisms live in almost every habitat from the poles to the equator, deserts, geysers, rocky mass of high mountains, and the deep sea. Some are adapted to extremes such as very hot or very cold conditions, others to high pressure, and a few to high radiation environments. Microorganisms also make up the microbiota found in and on all multicellular organisms.” [2] This means that each plant, animal and human being is a host to a large community of microorganisms, called microbiota, or microbiome. This community comprises “bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi and viruses.” [3] It is estimated that up to 90% of the cells of our organism belong to the members of this community of microorganisms, called the human microbiome. This means (according to some estimates) about 100 trillion unicellular organisms, the majority of which inhabit our intestines. For that reason a gut can contain 100-fold more genes than are in the cells of our own body. [4]
Scientific discoveries have brought the realisation that we are also hosting large numbers of viruses. In contrast to the microbiota composed from diverse species of unicellular organisms, “viruses contain nothing more than a tiny little bit of genetic material” [5] – “DNA or RNA, often surrounded by a protein coat, sometimes by a membrane.” [6] The total collection of viruses inside and on the human body is called the human virome. “Certain viruses are also integrated into the human genome as proviruses or endogenous viral elements” – that is, viral elements originating from within. However, as “viruses evolve rapidly the human virome changes constantly. Every human being has a unique virome with a unique balance of species. The human virome is far from being completely explored and new viruses are discovered frequently.” [7]
Besides our little-known ‘personal community’ of viruses we are surrounded also by huge numbers of viruses in our environment. For “viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity.” [8] For example, there are “more viruses in a litre of coastal seawater than people on Earth.” [9] They have been found even in the water from the Cave of Crystals that has been “cut off from the biology of the outside world for millions of years. Just about wherever scientists look – deep within the Earth, on grains of sand blown off the Sahara, in hidden lakes a mile below the Antarctic ice – they are discovering viruses faster than they can make sense of them.” [10] For that reason the total “number of viruses on Earth is staggering.” [11] Therefore it is no surprise if “virologists now recognize that from the Cave of Crystals to the inner world of the human body, Earth is a planet of viruses.” [12]
Here we have one example of the oft-mentioned anthroposophical principle that “man is a microcosm of the great world” [13] that surrounds him. And at each attempt at investigation of this mysterious microscopic world that belongs to the human microcosm we need to be aware that in real life situations it is almost impossible – due to their huge numbers and their extraordinary small sizes – to distinguish what is causing a specific phenomenon. With the aim to overcome this hurdle scientists isolate one species of microbes or viruses in disinfected laboratory conditions and then perform various experiments in petri dishes. And although this enables us to gain some knowledge of these beings we must keep in mind that laboratory experiments can never give us the true picture of what is happening in the complex inter-relationships of all existing species of microorganisms and viruses inside any living being or natural ecosystem.
Therefore it is impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that one specific member of the world’s microbiota is infecting people and causing a specific type of infectious disease – as it is claimed in the case of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19. “After all, any self-respecting scientist should always look at things from a ‘wide angle’, especially in microbiology – a world that could hardly be more complex.” For that reason we must confess that “it is ultimately impossible to find out exactly everything that microbes get up to on a cellular and molecular level in living people or animals. To do this, you would have to chase every single microbe around with mini-cameras. And even if it were possible, you’d merely have little pieces of a puzzle, not an intricate blueprint of the body in its entirety.” [14]
We are ‘Swimming’ in the Ever-Changing Stream
of Activities of Microscopic Beings
Besides their minuteness and large numbers, there is another serious obstacle in our effort to grasp the impacts of specific species of microorganisms. This is their extraordinary ability to adapt to changes in their environment. “Members of familiar species of plants and animals reproduce ‘vertically’, as mother and father each donate en equal number of genes to form new offspring. Bacteria are under no such constraint.” This means, that “unlike all other forms of life on Earth, bacteria transmit genetic information relatively freely.” Thus “by trading genes and acquiring new heritable traits bacteria expand their genetic capacities in minutes, or at most hours. A huge planetary gene pool gives rise to temporarily classifiable bacterial ‘types’ or ‘strains’, which radically and quickly change, keeping up with environmental conditions. Bacteria in the water, soil, and air are like the cells of a growing global being.” [15]
This capacity to give and receive genes creates numerous possibilities for genetic mutations of microorganisms. But there are even more possibilities for in all this are also involved viruses. Viruses can pass on their genes by entering into bacteria; a lesser known method is to attach themselves to the tiny tubes that enable the transfer of genes between bacteria. [16]
It is also known that viruses exchange genes not only with their hosts but also with each other. Besides, it has been discovered that viruses drive global biogeochemical cycles by means of their interaction with the broader global ecosystems and are for that reason important for recycling of many nutrients. [17] For that reason a growing number of scientists regard viruses as “dynamic players in the ecology of Earth, which move DNA between species, provide new genetic material for evolution, and regulate vast populations of organisms.” [18] This view is in stark contrast to the prevalent negative view of viruses as culprits for various infectious diseases that can create deadly havoc among populations.
New scientific discoveries have helped us to recognise viruses as ‘sentences’ of genetic transcripts that carry specific instructions to the cells to perform this or that task. For example, if a virus contains an ‘instruction’ that triggers processes of cell destruction, we need to consider two possibilities. The first (this is the one that is promoted by the mainstream media) is that this instruction has some kind of evil intention to destroy healthy cells. The second, (which we rarely hear discussed) is that the cells have been seriously injured due to other causes and the instruction has the aim of removing the damaged cells.
One of the biggest flaws in the science of virology is the ‘invention’ of the so-called ‘inapparent’ or ‘asymptomatic’ infection – meaning that we have a specific type of virus but do not manifest either observable signs or symptoms of a disease. [19] As most of the present ‘cases’ of coronavirus belong to this category, we need to point to the fact that we are all – in accordance with such logic – ‘asymptomatically’ infected from birth onwards! This is even true for our lungs. Until 2009 “scientists had assumed the lungs of healthy people were sterile.” Then it was discovered that “on average, people have 174 species of viruses in the lungs” and that “only 10% of these species bore any close kinship to any virus ever found before.” [20]
A more sensible conclusion is that we live in a symbiotic and antagonistic relationship with our own community of microorganisms and viruses and that we need to develop a better understanding of this two-way relationship with them before we make any judgments about their impact. But to do this we need first to overcome the deeply ingrained aversion to, and fear of, viruses and germs as foreign ‘infectious’ agents that is also the cause of the present ‘disinfection mania’. It should be clear to us by now that any attempt to escape the impacts of this microscopic world with disinfection of streets and other public spaces is simply nonsense that originates from an utter lack of understanding of their indispensable tasks in natural ecosystems.
Ineffectiveness of chemicals on bacteria has been visually demonstrated by an experiment in which researchers divided a large petri dish into sections and saturated each with various doses of medication, ranging from none at the outermost rims of the dish, progressing to an extremely high concentration of antibiotic in the middle section of the dish. What then happened to the bacteria E. coli in the petri dish was recorded by camera and resulted in the “visualization of bacterial movement, death and survival; evolution at work, visible to the naked eye.” [21]
At the borderline of each section with the higher dose of antibiotic, “a small group of bacteria adapted and survived. Resistance (to antibiotic) occurred through the successive accumulation of genetic changes. As drug-resistant mutants arose, their descendants migrated to areas of higher antibiotic concentration.” The final result was that “in the span of 10 days, bacteria produced mutant strains capable of surviving a dose of the antibiotic trimethoprim 1,000 times higher than the one that killed their progenitors. When researchers used another antibiotic – ciprofloxacin – bacteria developed 100,000-fold resistance to the initial dose.” [22]
Due to such a fast and extremely adaptive capacity to mutate it is impossible to maintain a database of viruses and bacteria that would reflect the state of real life facts. For that reason each attempt to prove the origin of a specific virus or germ is riddled with flaws. One of the most common flaws is to ignore the possibility that a specific ‘pathogen’ came into existence through mutations triggered by poisoning from chemical residues in food or other sources, or even from ‘treatment’ with antibiotics, antiviral or other chemical drugs.
Certainly there is no possibility of finding indisputable evidence as to the origin of a specific microorganism or virus, for surveillance techniques that would enable live streaming of the movement of these creatures in real life situations do not exist. For example, if we look at electron microscope pictures of viruses we can often see particles on the surface of the cell, but we cannot tell from such pictures if they are entering into, or going out of, the cell.
In the description of the above image (taken by a scanning electron microscope) [23] the red particles are claimed to show the virus SARS CoV-2 on an apoptotic cell – which basically means a cell in the process of “programmed cell death.” [24] As this includes also “chromosomal DNA fragmentation and RNA decay” we cannot exclude the possibility that these viruses are fragments of DNA or RNA excreted by the dying cell itself. There are even medical experts who are providing sensible arguments in favour of this possibility, but we don’t hear or read anything about their arguments in the mainstream media. [25]
Parasitic Forms of Microscopic Life as
the Great Benefactors of Natural Ecosystems
Unicellular microorganisms perform many important functions in the kingdoms of nature, as members of the organic farming movement are well aware. Among them is transformation of organic matter in the compost heap into humus – the best fertiliser for plants. In this process the unicellular fungi break down the woody parts of the plants and manifold bacteria perform other necessary tasks to change dead organic matter into a substance that enables the growth of new plants.
Although animal flesh doesn’t belong in a compost heap, we must not overlook the fact that microorganisms also participate in the bio-chemical processes of decomposition of all dead animal bodies which are not eaten by other animals. Therefore we have the world of microorganisms to thank for the indispensable recycling services that prevent us from being ‘suffocated’ under the dead bodies of all those creatures that have populated the Earth in past evolutionary periods. And without their tireless work our oceans would become saturated with dead plants and animal bodies in a similar manner to what is happening today, with floating islands of non-biodegradable plastic waste in some regions.
If we look at the community of microorganisms and viruses that each person is carrying, we notice that they populate all our outer and inner skins – that is, all those areas where our body borders upon the outer world. Among the most populated is our digestive tube. Through this tube moves food, which is exposed to physical and biochemical decomposition until useful nutrients are absorbed and the rest is discarded as excreta. Such processes are equivalent to those of decomposition on the compost heap. Therefore it may be no surprise that our gut contains more than 90% of our microbiota.
This is not the only contribution of these beings to our wellbeing. “Microbiota has been found to be crucial for immunologic, hormonal and metabolic homeostasis of its host” [26] and “these microorganisms not only impact our physical health, but also our mental health.” [27] The key finding in all this is that the quality of our gut microbiome depends to a large extent on food we regularly consume. [28]
Why do we then hear so much about ‘deadly’ viruses and ‘dangerous’ germs and very little about the crucial role of a complex community of microscopic beings that we carry with us all the time, as well as factors that impact the quality of our microbiome? This is not at all presenting a realistic picture of these tiny creatures, without which we would not live long, as has been demonstrated by experiments in the first half of the 20th century in which mice and rats “were kept completely germ-free. Their birth even took place by Caesarean section; after that they were locked in microbe-free cages and given sterile food and water. After a few days all the animals were dead.” [29]
So instead of wondering “why are human beings tortured by entities which are neither animals nor plants but something in between, entities which enjoy making human beings suffer, namely bacteria and similar creatures” [30] we need to recognise the beneficial role of these tiny masters of decomposition and messengers of death in the sense of Goethe’s insight that “nature has invented death in order to have abundant life.” The cycle of birth and death doesn’t only exist in the kingdoms of nature, but also inside our organism, which is continually regenerating by means of the death of old cells and the birth of new ones until, in ideal circumstances, our body is completely renewed over a period of seven years.
Processes of decay and decomposition are part of the natural life cycles of plants and animals and are not pleasant at first sight; therefore we can understand why many people feel repulsion or are even scared of them. However, it is not enough to know that “life is germinating and sprouting, but also that simultaneously there is continual destruction incorporated into it. Our life is incessantly going to pieces; the decaying life is always making room for the blossoming life. We are actually dying by degrees. At every moment something falls apart in us, and each time we build it up again. As matter is being destroyed, space is created for soul and spirit to enter and become active in us.” [31]
Thus we have arrived at an exceptionally important insight: that our soul-spiritual life (thinking, feeling and willing) is the very source that is continually exposing us to the processes of decay and death. [32] Without this we would not be beings aware of own existence and having freedom of choice! For that reason – before we put the blame on any member of inner or outer microbiota – we need to ask the question: “What kind of soul-spiritual attitudes to the world and other people and what kind of life habits lead to such unhealthy excesses of processes of inner destruction that enable the emergence of an acute infectious disease?”
Each Specific Kind of Germ Will Multiply in Excess
Only under favourable Internal Conditions
From the above descriptions of the microscopic world of our own microbiota it is evident that it is very hard to separate between the various actors that play their roles in an infectious disease, for in real life situations these microscopic beings continually interact between themselves and with the cells of our body. Even from a materialistic medical perspective we need to consider that in the case of respiratory infectious diseases, such as flu, the impact of the virus alone will result in “a harmless cold, nothing special.” The real danger begins only with “the association of virus-bacteria” that brings about pneumonia. “If this situation is not controlled and the disease progresses, then more serious complications occur – respiratory distress syndrome, shock. A person cannot breathe on their own.” And in the final stage, close to death, “the alveoli [air sacs in the lungs] are all filled with fungi.” [33]
Therefore we can ask: Are not these microscopic creatures performing in our body the same processes of decomposition and recycling of the organic tissues as they do in the outside world? As we know, all living beings are composed from cells, but we cannot “think of the body as being merely the sum total of all the cells – rather has the life of the cell an antagonistic tendency to the bodily life. This is shown in all infectious diseases” which progress to a stage when multiplication of bacteria gets out of control. The consequent destructive effects of the bacteria are possible “because they have in themselves the power of disintegration of the life of the higher organisms.” [34]
It is not just “the intestinal flora and fauna in the human organisation which has to be combated and counteracted” [35] in our etheric organism – in the first supersensible member of our human constitution that enables all life processes and functions on the organic level of our existence – this is valid also in relation to the life of the cells themselves. This is clear from the example of cancer where some cells of our body start to proliferate at the expense of the rest of the body. This is possible only when the cells free themselves from the control of our subconscious ego-organisation. If the cancer process can bring death to the whole organism, then it can happen also in the case of microorganisms – these “leftovers in the march of evolution that bear in themselves the powers of destruction of all higher life.” [36]
In allopathic medicine there exists a “tendency to judge the sick person according to certain by-effects of the disease, as exemplified in the bacterial theory” which is in its essence “the diversion to secondary issues. If bacteriology were treated as an aid on the way to knowledge, it would be of great service; much may be learnt from the specific types of microorganisms, regarding the illness in question, for each specific kind of bacillus appears under the influence of quite definite primary causes.” [37] Therefore microbes, “these remarkable creatures simply prove, by their presence, that there is a certain type of medium or substratum favourable to them, and attention should accordingly be directed to the study of this substratum” [38] in the human body. Spiritual science admits that “infectious diseases are based on their capacity for tremendous multiplication. However, these minute beings do not actually cause the illness, but a feeling of wellbeing is engendered in them when something is ailing in us. Like the plant in manure, these little beings feel well in the stricken organs of our body and like to remain there.” [39]
For that very reason anthroposophical spiritual science pays “attention to the fact that for illnesses accompanied by the occurrence of bacteria, there are deeper causes – acting as primary causes [40] – than the mere occurrence of bacteria.” For example, “in order to have a normal life, the human organism must develop processes that may develop to such extent that they are integrated into the entire human being. If a process is heightened excessively, however, then it becomes localized.” And this localization “encourages an atmosphere, as it were, in which all kinds of lower organisms, all kinds of tiny organisms, can develop. The nurturing element for these small organisms is always present within the human being, only it is spread out over the whole organism. If it becomes concentrated, it provides the life soil for small organisms, for microbes. The reason they can thrive there, however, must be sought in the exceedingly fine processes in the organism which then prove to be the primary cause” [41] for an infectious disease.
Therefore, “it is one thing to assert that bacteria exist and that they increase during the course of an illness; it is quite another to seek the primary cause of the illness in the bacteria” [42] or viruses. This latter approach has deeply impregnated – with rare exceptions – the members of the medical profession and via their influence have in turn ‘infected’ the great majority of the world population and this has enabled the worldwide epidemic of fear of the new, ‘deadly’ strain of coronavirus and the consequent acceptance of the extreme ‘preventive’ measures.
In recent decades microbiologists have been witnessing occasional life-threatening outbreaks of food poisoning caused by the consumption of foods contaminated with new, ‘pathogenic’ strains of E. coli. “What makes these outbreaks particularly confusing is that E. coli is, for the most part, a harmless creature. We are each home to billions of harmless E. coli that dwell in our gut. They live peacefully in every other mammal, too. E. coli is so harmless, in fact, that microbiologists began to rear E. coli in laboratory flasks a century ago, and it became the best-studied species on earth.” Experts admit that the genetic makeup of the new mutations of disease-causing E. coli “is cause for more concern. It evolved into a deadly pathogen by picking up genes from other bacteria through a process called recombination. Viruses, for example, can move from one E. coli to another and insert genes from their old host into a new one.” The conclusion of scientists is that “E. coli are a cauldron of recombination.” [43] What is missed is the fact that there must be something in their environment that triggers these genetic mutations. And in the case of above ‘contamination’ of food by ‘pathogenic’ strains of E. coli they should search for the source of their ‘pathogenicity’ among the thousands of agrochemicals and food additives used in modern food production.
This link can be clearly seen in the relationship between epidemic of polio (infantile paralysis) and pesticide production in the USA from 1940 to 1970. [44] So instead of pointless classifications of ‘harmless’ and ‘pathogenic’ bacteria we should instead focus our attention on those factors that are decisively contributing to the decrease of life forces and the dramatic increase of diseases in the last century and a half. [45] Why do medical experts and politicians, when talking about serious dangers to the human health, not mention genetically modified foods and more than 100.000 industrial chemicals – among them artificial fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, food additives, medical drugs, antibiotics, [46] etc. – that have been introduced into our environment and into our bodies since the origin of chemical engineering onwards?
Instead all we hear about are dangerous viruses and germs. However, “by focusing on microbes and accusing them of being primary and lone triggers of disease, we overlook how various factors are linked together, causing illness, such as environmental toxins, the side effect of medications, psychological issues like depression and anxiety and poor nutrition.” [47] And spiritual science can add to this list of physical and psychological factors the long list of spiritual causes that contribute to the emergence of epidemics of infectious diseases. [48]
In Reality We Can Get Infected Only on the Soul-Spiritual Level
Amongst medical experts the generally accepted narrative of how infectious disease spread is that “germs are transmitted from an ill person who has influenza, for example, and then these are inhaled and bring about the disease in another. It is like someone injuring a man by hitting him with a hammer. In this case the injury is caused by a patient bombarding another person with a multitude of germs. Matters are not at all that simple; they are much more complicated.” [49]
This is obvious even from an impartial survey of medical experiments that have aimed to prove the transfer of an infectious illness by means of germs, such as the one conducted in 1914 by German microbiologist Walther Kruse. He first put the diluted and filtered mucus of a person having flu “into the noses of 12 colleagues. Four of them came down with colds. Later, Kruse did the same thing to 36 students. 15 of them got sick.” In the control group of “35 people who didn’t get the drops, only one of them came down with the cold.” This is supposed to prove that “some tiny pathogen was responsible for the disease.” [50] But this explanation doesn’t consider the impact of placebo effect. To eliminate this impact the control group should receive the uncontaminated drops and nobody should know what they have received.
As such experiments don’t fulfil the basic standards of a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study, they cannot be regarded as a valid proof. In the case of those experiments in which they inject an infected substance into the blood stream, or even directly into the brains, of laboratory animals, we can only state that this is proof only that animals get poisoned by foreign substances and not that viruses or germs can be transferred via the air or by touch! [51]
So-called ‘virus-hunters’ – the special branch of scientists working in the marketing department of pharmaceutical corporations who promote the simplistic formula ‘virus=infection=disease’ – never mention any experiments that contradict their dogma. For example, in November 1918 – in the time of the Spanish flu pandemic – 62 healthy sailors, charged with delinquency and sent to prison, volunteered to participate in an experiment where doctors collected the mucus from ill people and sprayed it “into the noses and throats of some volunteers and dropped it into others’ eyes.” Besides this, “trying to simulate what happens naturally when people are exposed to flu victims, the doctors took ten volunteers onto the hospital ward where men were dying of the disease.” Then they were given instruction that each was to be near sick man and to “lean into his face, breath his fetid air, and chat with him for five minutes. To be sure that the healthy man had had a full exposure to the sick man’s disease, the sick man was to exhale deeply while the healthy man drew the sick man’s breath directly into his lungs. Finally, the flu victim coughed five times in the volunteer’s face. Each healthy volunteer repeated these actions with ten different patients. Each flu patient had been seriously ill for no more than three days – a period when the virus or whatever it was that was causing the flu should still be around in his mucus, in his nose, in his lungs.” However, to the great surprise “not a single healthy man got sick!” [52] For correct evaluation of such an outcome we need to take into account the high level of positive motivation of the volunteers to whom – in the exchange for their participation in the experiment – the promise was made to be freed from the prison.
And here is another story that contradicts the dogma of infection promoted by official medicine. “In 1969, a group of twelve men overwintered [in the research station] in Antarctica. During the seventeenth week of perfect quarantine in complete isolation, one of them suddenly developed an upper respiratory tract infection described as a mild to moderately severe cold. Over the next two weeks, seven more men contracted the infection.” [53] Thus even the most impeccable quarantine in an extraordinarily hostile environment (-35°C) cannot protect humans from ‘getting infected’. It is clear that the medical theory about the infection via contact with ill people can offer an explanation for the emergence of a disease for the seven people who got ‘infected’ later, but it cannot explain how the first person got ‘infected’! [54]
All this is in accordance with the insight of spiritual science that “germs are not even necessary for one person to catch the flu from another. Instead I myself produce a favourable environment for the germs; I myself acquire them. The sick person need not bombard me with them at all.” [55] This is quite possible if we bear in mind that we carry inside our organism up to 100 trillion members of our individual microbiota. And likewise when we introduce into our body a foreign virus or germ through drinking contaminated water, we will not automatically get ill if the preconditions for the occurrence of a specific infectious disease are not present in our organism. [56]
However, this doesn’t mean that spiritual science rejects the concept of infection in the case of certain illnesses. But infection can only happen if the weakened life forces in the physical body create the basic conditions for it. The relationship between primary causes of a disease and infection can be explained by the following analogy: “Suppose that I meet a friend of mine, whose relations with other people do not in general touch me. He is sad and has reason to be so, for he has lost one of his friends by death. I have no direct relationship with this friend who has died, but I become sad with him at his sad news. His sadness is, so to speak, first hand and direct; mine arises indirectly, communicated through him. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the mutual relationship between me and my friend provides the precondition for this infection.” [57]
And now “imagine that you are near a person who is sick with flu and you feel sorry for him. This makes you quite susceptible and sensitive to him.” The sick person is exuding the odour that can be detected only by one with a sensitive nose. And just as we imitate people’s feelings “so do we join in with what an ill person evaporates. As a consequence, our own astral body, our own activity [of the soul body], becomes disorganized. This disorder causes a chemical basis that in turn makes us contract the flu.” Thus “at first, then, the illness has nothing to do with bacteria but simply with the relation of one person to another.” [58]
As a matter of fact, “infection is due to a person becoming an imitator. Indeed, there is a very delicate sensitivity involved in this imitating” which is normal activity in early childhood. Each child is in the first seven years an inborn imitator. [59] “However, every process that occurs as the normal course of events in the human organism at some time or other can also arise abnormally. Thus, this process, which is simply a concomitant of childhood, can also occur at another period of life, although somewhat modified or metamorphosed.” Hence in the case of infectious diseases that “occur at a later stage in life, there is something of an infantile nature at work in the individual. The fundamental characteristic of the infantile stage is the tendency to imitate.” [60]
Therefore we need to realise that infection can happen only on the soul-spiritual level. For “in spiritual domains the danger of infection is infinitely greater than in any physical domain.” [61] In this regard strong negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety, depression, hatred, etc., “are dangerous because they lower the vitality of the man to such a point that he becomes susceptible to disease.” Such emotions “are so highly infectious from the astral [soul, feelings] point of view because they lower in a peculiar manner the astral atmosphere, and thus make it hard for people – in the astral sense – to breathe freely.” [62]
When people finally realize that it is the fear of viruses that is highly contagious [63] – as the events in the case of this corona pandemic have amply demonstrated – and that viruses and germs in themselves are not to blame for infectious diseases, then the astral-spiritual atmosphere of humanity pervaded today by fear of death and disease – which is affecting each person in a lesser or greater degree due to the simple fact that this atmosphere is common to all of us – will dramatically improve. Until then we can defend ourselves by insight that “logical, clear thinking has a strengthening and health-promoting effect on the physical body, making it less susceptible to disease.” This holds especially true in the case of infectious diseases. By means of such thinking “confidence is established in all matters of outer and inner life. Strong individuals will listen only to their own inner voice while those who are weak are inclined to wait for advice and suggestions from others” [64] – mainly from political and religious leaders or scientific and medical authorities.
Such trust in authorities is contributing to widespread belief that a new miracle-drug will sort out this or that disease, or that vaccination “is a force for good in public health.” The consequence of such faith is that many people “demand immunization as their right and their responsibility” and are ready to make great effort “that no one is excluded.” [65] Such a messianic atmosphere is a very good substratum for overgrowth of strong antipathy and intolerance towards those who are not afraid of ‘infection’ with viruses or microbes.
So instead of joining the ranks of those who want to participate in the self-defeating ‘war on germs and viruses’, we must develop a conscious relationship with the world of microorganisms and viruses we carry within us and take responsibility for our own health by means of eating natural/biodynamic/organic wholefoods, [66] and using more natural remedies, toiletries, cosmetics, cleaning products and other things in our homes. This is an effective way to minimise the negative impact of chemical toxins that are so generously used in conventional food production and other branches of economy. And instead of having unconditional faith in the power of medical drugs and vaccines – the special group of chemical toxins that can under certain conditions ward off certain diseases – we must acquire spiritual scientific knowledge of the basic nature of human health on the level of body, soul, and spirit. [67]
By doing so we will not only gain powerful tools to improve our health but we will also improve our resistance to infections. For “a great deal on Earth depends upon the kind of spiritual life we take with us into sleep. What we take with us into sleep makes our soul either a good or a bad tool for all that rays into the organs of our body from the spiritual world. These tools are not derived from the soul life of our daytime consciousness but from the physical and chemical activities that take place underneath the threshold of consciousness.” And these activities depend from “the spiritual forces which ray in from the spiritual world during sleep. That is why it is important to take into our life of sleep spiritual knowledge and the frame of mind which emanates from that spiritual knowledge.” Microorganisms are encouraged to flourish when people are feeding solely with materialistic ideas and deny any spiritual explanations. “If you really want to fatten up bacteria, there is no better method than to take crude materialistic ideas with you into sleep.” [68]
All this presents an important aspect of an occult fact that in our present times “humanity stands at the crossroad. The world presents a picture of disruption and increasing chaos. Yet amidst this chaos, this welter of dark, obscuring passions that threaten to destroy everything, the initiates are aware of the presence of spiritual powers who are actively striving to awaken in man a new spirituality. And preparation for anthroposophy consists fundamentally in listening to this voice of the spirit that can still be heard amid the clamour of our materialistic age.” [69] What we can do at such critical times as we live in now is to spread revelations of spiritual science and hope that there will be enough people willing to listen to the voices of this new mystery wisdom which alone can enable the true and healthy renewal of society.
For an additional perspective see:
❖ A Spiritual Scientific Perspective on the Origin of Viruses and the Nature of Viral Diseases
NOTES
