Nowadays a great number of therapies are available which are aimed at helping
people who are confronting a multitude of modern illnesses. Besides modern
methods there exists various traditional methods and alternative approaches to
healing. The question which is obviously in the mind of the person who becomes
ill is: What is the most efficient therapy for my disease? Here is presented a
spiritual-scientific division of illnesses into three main groups [1]
– based on the knowledge of the
FOURFOLD HUMAN BEING – which serves as general guidance for the choice of
the most appropriate therapies. However, one needs to be aware that "things are
not so clear cut in the world, even though you can draw clear lines when you
want to make observations." [2]In
life we can always find intermediate states and unusual combinations of specific
influences and for that reason one cannot keep to any form of one-sidedness in
the search of the origins of illnesses and also in the search for the most
appropriate therapies.
Psychological Therapies for Irregularities of the Ego
We will start with the group of illnesses which are expression of an
irregularity in the working of the ego. The first group of "illnesses that are chronic originate from the physical point
of view in the blood and from the spiritual point of view in the
ego. Those are chiefly the illnesses that are in the proper sense
hereditary, and these
are the illnesses that can only be understood by those people who look at
the being of man from a spiritual point of view. Here and there are people
who are chronically ill, who are, in other words, never really fit; they
always have one or another thing the matter with them. To get to the bottom
of this, we must ask ourselves what the actual basic character of the ego is
like. If you understand what life really is,
then you will know that definite forms of chronic illnesses
are connected with one or another basic soul character of the ego.
The first thing you have to ask yourself when somebody comes and
says he has been suffering from this or that for years, is what kind of
person is he fundamentally? You have to know what basic character type
his ego is, otherwise you are bound to go wrong with ordinary medicine,
unless you are lucky. The important thing in curing people of these
illnesses is to consider their whole surroundings – in so far as they can
have a direct or indirect influence on the ego – and to try to find
the setting that will have just the right effect on the character of the
ego. To find the right cure, you need, in particular, a wide experience
of life, so that you can enter into the person's character and can say:
For this person to recover, he must change his job. It is a matter of
pinpointing what is necessary from the point of view of his soul nature.
If it is necessary to send a person to another place, you will not
be able to help him as a rule if he is tied to a job and cannot move.
Instead the psychological method is indeed always effective. What is called the
psychological method works best of all when the illness is actually in a
person's ego being. Thus when a chronic illness of this type occurs, one
that is in the blood, psychological remedies are justified. And if they
are carried out in the right way, their effect on the ego will entirely
compensate for what impinges on him from outside. Wherever you look you
will be able to see the subtle connection between what a man experiences
in his soul when he is habitually working behind a work bench and when
he gets the chance to enjoy country air for a short while. The joy that
lends wings to his soul can be called a psychological method in the
widest sense. Then, if the therapist is carrying out his method
properly, he can gradually exercise his own influence in place of this.
Psychological methods have their strongest justification for this
form of illness and should not be overlooked, because
most of the
illnesses come from an irregularity of the ego being of man. These are
the things that apply to the kind of illnesses that appear externally as
chronic illnesses, and that are connected physically with the blood and
spiritually with the ego." [3]
In the group of psychological therapies that are the most suitable for
hereditary chronic diseases we can count all those 'therapies' which empower
the individuals to take more responsibility for their own life and health. Among them are:
- Change of life style in accordance with positive moral values
- Artistic therapies [4]
- Biographical counselling
- Various classical and alternative psychological therapies
Nutritional Therapy for Irregularities of the Astral Body
"Now we come to those illnesses that have their spiritual origin mainly in
irregularities of the astral body and that appear in certain disabilities of
the nervous system in one or another direction. Now a large part of the common
acute illnesses are connected with what we have just mentioned, in fact most of
them. For it is sheer superstition to believe that when someone has a stomach
or heart complaint or even a clearly perceptible irregularity somewhere, the
right treatment is to deal directly with the symptom. The essential thing could
be that the symptom is there because the nervous system is incapable of
functioning. Thus the heart can be affected simply because the nervous system
has become incapable of functioning in the area where it ought to support the
movement of the heart. It is quite unnecessary to maltreat the heart or, as the
case may be, the stomach, for they may, in principle, have nothing directly the
matter with them, for it is only the nerves that provide for them which are
incapable of carrying out their job. If in a case like this the stomach complaint is treated with
hydrochloric acid, it would be a mistake comparable
to tinkering with an engine that is always running late because you think
something is the matter with it – yet it still runs late. For you would find,
on closer examination, that the engine-driver always gets drunk before driving;
so you would do better to deal with the engine-driver, for the train would be
punctual otherwise. So it could well be that with stomach complaints we have to
treat the nerves that provide for the stomach instead of the stomach itself.
But it is not just a matter of saying that with stomach symptoms you
have to deal with the nerves first. This achieves nothing. You only
achieve something when you know that the nerve is the expression of the
astral body and seek for the causes in the irregularities to be found
there. The question is, what is the main thing? The first thing to
consider in the treatment of this sort of complaint is diet and
finding
the right balance between what a person enjoys and what is good for him.
What matters is his way of life, not with regard to externalities but
regarding what has to be digested and worked through by him. Although
purely psychological methods can be used, they certainly lose their
greatest value, therefore they are seldom used for these.
Dietary remedies apply here." [5] Modern expression for such an approach is
'nutritional therapy' or 'nutritional healing' and those who give such
kind of professional advice are called
nutritional therapists.
In regard to acute illnesses we need to clarify that while from a
spiritual-scientific perspective they are a manifestation of the
irregularities of the astral body, the mainstream medicine describes
them as diseases with a sudden onset, often requiring urgent treatment.
Both descriptions indicate an upset balance in the internal environment
of the human organism where cause and effect are very close together,
timewise (if we compare with chronic diseases), and often accompanied by
quite dramatic symptoms, similarly as is the case of an injury or
poisoning.
Medicines for Irregularities of the Etheric Body
Lastly we have the group of "illnesses, partly chronic and partly
acute, which are connected with the human etheric body, and which
therefore come to expression in man's glands. As a rule these illnesses
have nothing to do with heredity, but a great deal to do with
nationality and race. So that in the case of the illnesses originating
in the etheric body and appearing as glandular complaints, we must
always ask whether the illness is occurring in a Russian, an Italian, a
Norwegian or a Frenchman. For these illnesses are connected with the
national character and therefore take quite different forms. Above all we must know that the human organs that
work under the
influence of the etheric body, and which can fall sick as a result of
irregularities of the etheric body, have quite definite relationships
with one another. In occult medicine these things are also described by
applying the images of the planets to the constellation of man's organs.
Thus the heart is the Sun, the brain the Moon, the spleen Saturn, the
liver Jupiter, the gall Mars, the kidneys Venus and the lungs Mercury.
If you study the mutual relationships of the planets you have an image
of the mutual relationships of man's organs in so far as they are in the
etheric body. You have to know the interconnections of the organs when
there is an etheric illness, and yet these are principally those
illnesses for which specific remedies
are to be used. This is the place to use the remedies you find in the
plants and minerals. For everything belonging to the plants and
minerals has a profound importance for everything to do with the human
etheric body. So when we know an illness has arisen in the etheric body,
and it appears in a certain way in the glandular system, we must find
the remedy that can correctly repair the complex of interconnections
among the human organs.
These types of illnesses are actually the first in which we are
justified in using external medicines to assist the course of recovery.
If we see man as the complicated being he is, the treatment of illnesses
will also be a broad-minded one, and one-sidedness (and controversies)
will be avoided" [6] in the field of medicine. Thus
we can see that plant and mineral remedies are not suitable remedies for
all kinds of illnesses, for there are two other groups of illnesses
where the most efficient therapies are psychological methods and
nutritional therapies. Of course, there can be situations where it is
reasonable to combine all three types of therapies. However, we can also
understand that the heavy dependence of mainstream medicine to mineral
remedies which are used for all kinds of illnesses must have serious
drawbacks. This does not include only those negative side effects which
are recognised by medical profession itself but also hidden
supersensible effects on our four bodies – on the physical body, on the
etheric body, on the astral body and on the ego organisation.
