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"With pneumonia, the cause is always in the astral body;

pneumonia can occur in no other way." Rudolf Steiner

STEINERS QUACKERY:

The Dangers ofAnthroposophical Medicine

A different version of this essay is accessible athttp://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/steiner.html

Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian-German mystic and self-proclaimed clairvoyant whofounded the religion known as Anthroposophy. In addition to his acute interest in spir-itualism, Steiner also turned his attention to many earthly matters. One was education:Steiner founded the Waldorf school movement, which now includes nearly 1000

schools worldwide. Another area of interest for Steiner was medicine. Today practition-ers of Anthroposophical medicine can be found in many communities in North Amer-ica, Europe, and elsewhere.

The underlying principle of Anthroposophical medicine is that everything physical is in-fused with, and manifests, spirit. The causes of illness, then, are not primarily physicalbut instead reflect spiritual conditions. For human beings, good health is achievedwhen the physical organism is properly aligned with the nonphysical bodies that, Stein-er taught, manifest during a humans lifetime: the etheric body (a set of life forces),the astral body (higher soul forces), and the I (a spark of divine selfhood or ego that

separates true humans from animals and subhumans). [1] Bad health, on the otherhand, often reflects the working out of ones karmic destiny, especially sins committedin past lives (reincarnation is the central Steiner/Waldorf belief). [2] If one enters thisworld carrying spiritual impurities resulting from sins or errors committed in previouslives, disease can serve as a rite of passage, purging evils from ones bodily/spiritualsystem. Thus, medical intervention is often a bad idea: A doctor who cures a patientwith drugs, etc., may be blocking the patients karmic self-healing process.

One corollary of Steiners medical doctrines is that Anthroposophical doctors generallyavoid giving inoculations. Steiner taught that because a disease may result from

karma, interfering with the illness may force the patient to compensate in a future life.Addressing a group of doctors, Steiner said If we destroy the susceptibility to small-pox, we are concentrating only on the external side of karmic activity. [3] If karma isnot fulfilled in one life, it must be fulfilled (perhaps by having the same disease) in alater incarnation. Moreover, Steiner warned, there are conspiracies afoot that seek to
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trick people into taking medicines that destroy the soul. Black magicians and other evil-doers work to create medicines that deaden people to all things spiritual: Endeavors toachieve this will be made by bringing out remedies to be administered by inoculation ...only these inoculations will influence the human body in a way that will make it refuseto give a home to the spiritual inclinations of the soul. [4]

Although they are loath to inoculate or to interfere with karmic destiny, Anthroposophic-

al doctors do not completely refrain from giving some forms of real treatment. They aregenuine MDs, having gone through conventional medical schools. After receiving theirlicenses, they may employ conventional treatments on occasion, but they will also re-sort to alternative therapies when they deem these best. A Web site devoted to pro-moting Steiner posts this statement: So anthroposophical doctors reject nothing in thetoolbox of conventional medicine a priori. Every option is considered for its appropriate-ness in a specific instance. Antibiotics are used when necessary, but so are homeo-pathic remedies. Physical therapy is prescribed, but so is curative eurythmy (move-ment exercise to balance the forces within the body). [5]

Herbal compounds and teas are often prescribed. For instance, a compound calledRescue Remedy may be used to treat injuries. The ingredients include star of Bethle-hem (for shock), clematis (to counteract any tendency to lose consciousness), cherryplum (to maintain mental stability), impatiens (for tension), and rock rose (to preventpanic). [6] Even the most severe illnesses may be attacked with simple natural sub-stances, although they are often prepared in special ways. For the treatment of cancer,Steiner recommended mistletoe therapy. [7]

The efficacy, if any, of Anthroposophical remedies is contingent on Steiners anti-scientific conception of the human anatomy. Steiners descriptions of various bodily or-

gans and their functions differ markedly from those found in medical textbooks. Theheart, for instance, is not a pump, Steiner declared: [Science] sees the heart as apump that pumps blood through the body. Now there is nothing more absurd than be-lieving this, for the heart has nothing to do with pumping the blood. [8] Blood circulatesof its own accord, thanks to the vital force it embodies. Likewise, Steiner taught that thebrain is not involved in cognition. [9] True cognition, for Steiner, is the exercise ofparanormal powers made possible when individuals develop organs ofclairvoyance. [10]

Reportedly, Anthroposophical physicians do not conduct double-blind controlled exper-

iments [11], so it is almost impossible to evaluate the success rates enjoyed by suchphysicians. All doctors, including conventional MDs, witness mysterious declines aswell as mysterious recoveries. Presumably, believers in Anthroposophical medicinecan relate tales of highly successful treatments. (Whether the cures in these cases res-
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ulted from the treatments, or chance, or some other cause, cannot be known.) Like-wise, anecdotal evidence can be arrayed on the other side. (These reports must betreated with equal caution, of course.)

In an essay at the anti-Steiner Web site waldorfcritics.org, Robert Smith-Hald tells aharrowing tale of being raised by Anthroposophists. They believe that sickness is thesoul incarnating, and also that it has to do with karma. They dont believe in inocula-tions, so I had all the child diseases going around, some twice. Smith-Hald reportsthat he was constantly ill throughout his childhood and that the primary treatment hereceived consisted of little white sugar pills called infludo, and ... buckets and buckets

of horsetail [tea], and also chamomile tea. Certain foods made him sick, so he was re-quired to eat great quantities of these very foods. [T]he feeling my parents had wasthat I should eat more of it, as I obviously needed to incarnate through the food. So Igrew up being [force-fed] food that was making me sick. As an adult, having brokenaway from Anthroposophy, Smith-Hald was examined by a conventional doctor whocorrectly diagnosed his wheat intolerance. He has been improving ever since. [12]

At the same Web site, Sharon Lombard relates a similar story, but from a parentsvantage point. Lombard enrolled her daughter in a Waldorf school. When the child be-came sick, an Anthroposophical doctor treated her: The Anthroposophic doctor made

a diagnosis: my child had lost the will to live. He announced one of the potentialcures ... we were to give our daughter red, yellow, and orange crayons to color with! Ilooked at my husband in disbelief. When the doctor instructed us to make the sign of aflame out of Aurum cream over my childs heart at bedtime, I was dumbfounded ... Hetold us to apply the gold cream from below the heart upwards, towards the sky....

The girl ultimately had to be hospitalized, after which conventional medicine produceda gradual cure. [13]

As I implied above, such stories do not constitute scientific proof. But that is preciselythe point. True, conventional medicine basing its findings on careful research and

proven facts is still limited: It cannot explain the causes of some illnesses, and it of-fers no cures for some. But true medicine has an extremely potent weapon in its arsen-al, something that no alternative medicines have: the scientific method. This is the besttool mankind possesses for discovering truth. It is responsible for the great strides thattrue, conventional medicine has made, and it will account for the greater strides tocome.

VACCINATION

Let's look a little more deeply into this issue. The benefits of vaccination are well estab-lished; so are the dangers of withholding vaccination.
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Rudolf Steiner's followers do not absolutely oppose vaccination in all cases, but theybelieve that vaccination poses serious dangers. Diseases, they think, are often expres-sions of karma you get sick in this life in order to pay for errors you committed in aformer life. Vaccination thwarts karma, a very serious matter. If, in this life, you dontcontract the disease your karma needs, you may have to contract it or somethinglike it in a future life. In this sense, vaccination is extremely harmful, thwarting yourspiritual evolution.

The dangers of vaccination can be offset if a patient receives spiritual education bywhich Steiner and his followers mean education in the occult doctrines of Anthropo-sophy. Such an education is the cure for all human ills, Anthroposophists believe.

Lets take this a step at a time. In this life, you should want to suffer the disease yourkarma requires. Even if the disease can be fatal, you should want it in order to fulfillyour karma. [P]eople may virtually be driven to places where it is possible to get an in-fection in order to find in this the compensating effects for certain karmic causes withinthem; people are even driven to what one might call fatal life events to find such com-

pensation. Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press,1995), p. 167.

Behind each disease lies one or more spiritual errors that must be corrected. Considerthe error of unlovingness. This error finds physical expression in the disease known assmallpox. Smallpox vaccine will prevent you from getting the disease, but this maymean that you will need to contract smallpox or something similar in a later incarnation.You see, smallpox vaccine does not remove the real poison behind smallpox. Thepoison is the spiritual error manifested by smallpox, unlovingness. If this poison is notremoved in this life, it will have to be removed in a future life. The organ of unlovin-

gess is killed in the most complete sense in the outer physical sense throughsmallpox vaccination ... [But] we are merely accomplishing something to which the per-son in question will somehow have to produce a counterpart in a later incarnation whenhe [still] has the smallpox poison within him... Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONSOF KARMA, pp. 165-166.

The real cure for smallpox as for every other ill is learning to accept RudolfSteiners occult doctrines. If you do so, even vaccination wont harm you. Vaccinationwill not be harmful if, subsequent to vaccination, the person receives a spiritual educa-tion. Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, p. 166.

What did Steiner mean by a spiritual education? He meant the education he himselfwas dispensing, Anthroposophical education. That is where one may find truth. Spir-itual scientific research [i.e., Steiners own teachings] has shown, for example, thatsmallpox developed during a time when the general inclination towards egotism andunlovingness reached a particular climax. That is when smallpox emerged in the outerorganism [i.e., the physical body]. This is a fact. In anthroposophy it is our duty tospeak truthfully. Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, p. 165.

Anthroposophists essentially argue that people either need to endure illnesses such assmallpox, or people need to submit to occult indoctrination and spend their days in the

dark corridors of superstition and fallacy. They use different words to express thischoice, of course.


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The greatest danger in vaccination is that it may destroy the human soul, according toSteiner. Enemies of human spirituality will devise vaccines that destroy the human im-pulse to seek spirituality. The practical implication is that you should fear vaccination,since you will be unable to determine beforehand whether the vaccine being injectedinto you will help ward off a disease or destroy your soul or possibly both.

The two philosophies of life will be in complete Opposition. One movement will needto reflect how concepts and ideas may be developed to meet the reality of soul and

spirit. The others, the heirs of modern materialism, will look for the vaccine to make thebody healthy, that is, makes its constitution such that this body no longer talks of suchrubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a 'sound' view of the forces which live in enginesand in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Material-istic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity. [Rudolf Steiner, THEFALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), lecture 5, GA177.]

Today, bodies are vaccinated against one thing and another; in future, children will bevaccinated with a substance which it will certainly be possible to produce, and this will

make them immune, so that they do not develop foolish inclinations connected withspiritual life foolish here, of course, in the eyes of materialists ... The whole trendgoes in a direction where a way will finally be found to vaccinate bodies so that thesebodies will not allow the inclination towards spiritual ideas to develop and all their livespeople will believe only in the physical world they perceive with the senses. Out of im-pulses which the medical profession gained from presumption oh, I beg your par-don, from the consumption they themselves suffered people are now vaccinatedagainst consumption, and in the same way they will be vaccinated against any inclina-tion towards spirituality. This is merely to give you a particularly striking example of

many things which will come in the near and more distant future in this field the aimbeing to bring confusion into the impulses which want to stream down to earth [fromabove]. [Ibid., lecture 13.]
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APPENDIX

Here is a sampling of additional comments Steiner made about medicine, health, andthe human anatomy. My own comments are based on standard encyclopedias and

medical texts such as THE MERCK MANUAL and THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITYCOLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS COMPLETE HOME MEDICALGUIDE.

We must ask ourselves: In what constellation were we living when, in the nineties,the present influenza epidemic appeared in its benign form? In what cosmic constella-tion are we living at the present moment? By virtue of what cosmic rhythm does the in-fluenza epidemic of the nineties appear in a more acute form today?" [14] Consultingthe stars to understand diseases is obviously fallacious and dangerous for the pa-tient, who needs real care, not astrological hokum.

In a healthy human organism, a kind of organic combustion must always be activewhen substances are being transformed [i.e., broken down, digested, etc.] ... Organiccombustion occurs with every movement we make, including inner movements ...When the forces needed to restrain organic combustion are not present, either in theentire organism or in a single organ system, various forms of tuberculosis develop ... Ifwe administer phosphorus, we support the ability to curb organic combustion pro-cesses. [15] Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease, usually of the lungs. Combustiondoes not occur within the body we burn calories only in a metaphoric sense. Phos-phorus is a combustible poison instead of curb, Steiner evidently means en-

hance or support. For inner movements, read internal processes including mentalactivity. Steiner would also include spiritual activity involving the body.

Concerning the internal structure of an organ such as the esophagus ... In the organitself, the antimonizing force is at work in the human being. The human being is anti-mony if we exclude from consideration everything that is introduced from outside. Thehuman being is antimony. [16] The esophagus is the gullet, connecting the throat tothe stomach. Antimonizing means producing antimony, a brittle element used inmetallic alloys. The human being is antimony has no practical meaning no realmedical treatment can result from such a statement.

When a person becomes afflicted with shrunken kidneys, which can occur when thekidneys' activity is deficient, you can see an indentation here on the head ... You cansee in every person who has kidney disease this indentation in the head. Beneath itlies the optic nerves. When the indentation occurs, the optic nerves become inactive ...the patient begins to see unclearly. [17] The kidneys purify blood and excrete urine.Failing eyesight is not associated with kidney problems. Searching for indentations onthe head as in phrenology is junk science.


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Physiologists believe that they are onto something when they speak of sensory andmotor nerves, but they are actually only playing with words ... They say that someonecannot walk because the nerves that set the legs in motion, the motor nerves, areparalyzed. In truth, that person cannot walk because he or she cannot perceive his orher own legs [i.e., someone with higher spiritual consciousness would not be para-lyzed]. [18] Paralysis results from nerve damage. Steiner himself is playing with

words, offering senseless diagnoses and treatments. [I]t would be incorrect to allow children to eat too much fattening food. If [we] do so,since the fat blocks the spirit-soul [the human combined spirit and soul], the head sep-arates from the spirit-soul and becomes empty. [19] Many of Steiners medical state-ments depend on the existence of spiritual components that are conveniently im-possible to detect by any ordinary means. Steiner depended on clairvoyance, which al-most certainly is fraudulent. Steiners erroneous approach can sometimes lead to use-ful advice e.g., dont give kids too many fattening foods but this is almost a ran-dom event. An infinite number of psychics typing on an infinite number or typewriters

will eventually produce at least some sensible sentences. As we appear physically, we are clearly divided into the head system, the chest sys-tem, and the abdominal system, including the limbs.... [20] For Steiner, the really im-portant systems are spiritual and hence invisible; the three physical systems representonly how we appear to physical sight. But even if we concede this point, the three-system summary is simplistic. Steiner lumps body parts together based on proximity(e.g., everything in the chest is one system), but he also pairs parts that are essentiallydissimilar (abdomen and limbs). Think of the abdominal system. Clearly, noteverything in the abdominal region is part of a single system. The abdominal region

contains digestive organs, but it is also the site of sexual organs, and in women it is thesite of the womb. The legs are near the abdomen, but they are not part of the digestivesystem or the reproductive system. The arms are attached to the chest. Note thatsome real systems the nerve system, the vascular system are diffused through-out the entire body, bridging the divisions between Steiners three bodily systems.Steiner sometimes referred to systems in this more accurate way, although often hedid so inaccurately, as we will see.

There is constant tension in the human being between the upper and lower parts ofthe body. The primary goal of all our searching in the field of medicine should be to

master this tension, which is expressed in the forces concentrated in two organs, thepineal gland and the pituitary gland, or hypophysis. All of the forces of the upper bodyare expressed in the pineal gland, and a state of tension exists between them and theforces of the pituitary, or hypophysis cerebri, which are lower forces. [21] The notionsthat the body is constantly at odds with itself, and that understanding this is central to
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medical research, have little basis in medical science. A healthy organism is internallyharmonious. The pineal gland is a small organ inside the brain; it excretes melatoninand is associated with seasonal bodily cycles. The pituitary gland lies under the brain;it excretes various hormones that control functions in various parts of the body, upperand lower.

First, we have the four senses of touch, life, movement and balance ... The nextgroup of senses, namely smell, taste, sight and temperature are primarily senses offeeling ... I need to add that the sense of I [a high human nonphysical body]and thesenses of thought, hearing and speech are.... [22] We have five senses, not twelve:sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Some of Steiners additional senses are merecombinations of these (we sense motion, for example, through tactile sensations in theinner ear, supplemented by visual cues, auditory cues, and the like). Others are null(such as the sense of life, the sense of thought; we sense life because we are aliveand have our five senses; we dont sense thoughts, they occur in the brain, the centerof consciousness).

With pneumonia, the cause is always in the astral body [another human nonphysical

body]; pneumonia can occur in no other way. [23] Attributing any disease to a spiritualagency removes it from the purview of medical science. The clear danger is that spir-itual measures may be tried while actual physical cures are ignored.

[T]here may be a child of a strongly melancholic temperament. One recognizes thatthis disposition is connected with the secretion of the liver, and this in turn is related tothe sugar consumption. In meeting with the parents, every possibility is offered toreach an agreement to increase the sugar intake by sweetening the childs foods. [24]The four temperaments or humours are ancient Greek concepts (see my essay Hu-mouresque at this Web site). Modern science has rejected them. There can be no

connection between any temperament and any organ (e.g., the liver) or substance(e.g., sugar), since the temperaments do not exist. (In a more general sense, ofcourse, a vast range of temperaments are real but Steiner explicitly meant the an-cient four-humour concept, updated only slightly.)

[T]he predisposition to diabetes occurs if the I [a high human nonphysical body] ex-cludes itself from internal processes ... All of this secretion, which as you know is anoscillating and circulating activity, is neglected while the I is focusing its chief activity onthe brain. [25] Again, linking a disease to a spiritual cause is doubtful, at best and it

is even more doubtful if the reference is to an unconfirmed spiritual organ or power. Extreme flatulence arises from the fact that the astral body [another human non-physical body] is not completely membered into the bowels.... [26] Again, a spiritualcause for a physical phenomenon. Membered means joined to or integrated with.
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Diabetes is today more prevalent among Jews. Certainly others also have diabetes,but it occurs with particular frequency today among Jews. These people have a tend-ency to diabetes. The Jew has more difficulty absorbing sugar, yet on the other handhe requires it ... Pork makes the assimilation of sugar extremely difficult pork ag-gravates diabetes unusually in the human being so the prohibition of pork was cal-culated particularly to prevent diabetes. [27] Diabetes does not occur more frequently

among Jews. About 6% of the people in the world have diabetes. Among Jews, the fig-ure is 7%. In the USA, among all population groups, the average is 8%. (For non-His-panic whites, its about 10%; for non-Hispanic blacks, about 25%.) In Europe, its 9%.In Jordan and other Muslim countries, the figure may be as high as 15%. As for wheth-er The Jew (as if all Jews are alike) has special trouble absorbing sugar, the answeris no, Steiners racism notwithstanding. [28]

Concerning kidney disease, Steiner said the disease process can be counterbal-anced by giving the patient a combination of sulfur and silica. [29] Relying on homeo-pathic or other alternative remedies clearly presents dangers. Sulfur is a combustible

nonmetal. Silica is the unreactive mineral known as quartz. The ashes that a thought leaves strengthen bones, and so people with rickets dobetter if they think abstractly. [Rudolf Steiner,FROM THE CONTENT OF THE ESO-TERIC CLASSES, March 14, 1908.] Another translation says Rickets in children canbe improved through appropriate geometric study." [ESOTERIC LESSONS 1904-1909,p. 291.]

If you notice that a person has a problem with the liver, or specifically the intestines,and formic acid doesn't help at all, then you'll have to dispense oxalic acid. [30] Stein-er is often unclear. This statement seems to say that the intestines are a specific part

of the liver, which is nonsense. If we interpret the sentence to mean that formic acidand oxalic acid can be helpful both to the liver and, even more, to the intestines, it ismoot at best. Formic acid is an irritant made from steam and carbon monoxide. Oxalicacid is a poison used in bleaching and cleaning.

As far as todays science and medicine are concerned, the brain is an internal or-gan, and so are the contents of the lower body. No one notices that this error is justlike saying that positive and negative electricity are the same. [31] Modern scienceand medicine are correct: the brain and all other parts of the body are parts of thebody. Steiner denies it, and as usual he asserts that no one is correct except himself.

Arrogance allied with ignorance is extremely dangerous. The use of analogies hardlyoffsets this (the subject is the human organism, not electricity.)

In cancer, the sensory-nervous system invades the metabolic-limb system and be-gins to assert itself there ... An ear that develops in the right place is a normal organ,but when even a very minimal latent ear or other sense organ develops in the wrongplace, we are faced with cancer, or carcinoma. To learn to counteract the bodys tend-ency to develop sense organs in the wrong place, we must look deep into world evolu-tion, into the cosmic evolution that led to the human being.[32] Steiners views on cos-mic evolution are baroque and useless in practical life. (See my essay "Everything"

and the essays that follow it.) The sensory-nervous system is an apparently reason-able but actually incorrect concept. Nerves are not connect exclusively to sense organs they run throughout the entire body, conveying information to and from the brain. Ifwe want to identify a "system" consisting of the nerves and the body parts to which


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they are attached, that system would be the entire organism. There is no metabolic-limb system the metabolic process is cellular activity producing material and energyfor the life processes. The limbs, like all other parts of the body, receive sustenancefrom this activity. Carcinoma is not a synonym for cancer there are two generaltypes of cancers, carcinomas and sarcomas. The bodys tendency to develop senseorgans in the wrong place is not a major problem.

But if you become blind inwardly, your physiological processes don't work properly,

and soon that will lead to cancer of the intestine, the stomach, the pylorus.... [33]Despite knowing the causes of cancer as well as its treatment (mistletoe), Steiner is re-ported to have died of cancer. Anthroposophists dispute this, of course.

[W]ith the dying out of the worst parts of the ancient population of which I have been speak-ing [in Asia], the whole region gradually became filled with demonic beings ... Their influencecan best be seen at the time of the Great Migrations, when large masses of people, includingAttila and his hordes, came over from Asia and caused great terror among the people inEurope. This terror made the population susceptible to the influences of the demonic beings ...As a consequence of the terror produced by the hordes coming over from Asia, there graduallydeveloped what manifested during the Middle Ages as the epidemic of leprosy. [34] Many dis-eases come to us due to astrological influences. Leprosy came because of demonic beings em-powered by Attila. Didn't learn that in medical school, did you?

"You have gained a picture of those beings which are just on the boundary of the world lyingimmediately beyond the threshold, and of how, if they carry their impulses to their final issue,they become the bearers of parasites, of poisons, and therewith of illnesses. Now it becomesclear how far man in health raises himself above the forces that take hold of him in illness. Forillness springs from the malevolence of these beings who are necessary for the upbuilding ofthe whole structure of nature, but also for its fading and decay.

You must know that each limb of a human being is a complete human being, but with thehead and chest stunted, that and in the chest the head and limbs maintain balance. [35] Per-haps your education omitted this as well. Not to mention:

"Five is the number of evil ... When, one day, medicine will make use of this, it will be able toinfluence beneficially the course of illness. Part of the treatment would be to study the illness inits development on the first and fifth days after its onset, on the separate days at the fifth hourpast midnight, and again during the fifth week. Thus it is always the number five that determineswhen the physician can best intervene." [36]

"What is alcohol? Wine demonstrates what alcohol actually is, because wine, which onlywealthy people can afford to drink, has the most harmful effect. Beer is less harmful for the re-productive organs ... When one drinks, the reproductive organs are subjected to what has beeninternally absorbed in the way food is, [that is] to what should be absorbed solely by way of thesun itself, [from] the sun's shining ... Man drinks something that the sun produces outside of
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him. It becomes poison through this." [37]

"Now, what happens in the case of diphtheria? In diphtheria, the skin suddenly becomes weakand subdued ... Because the skin activity is no longer working properly from outside, superflu-ous skin forms on the inside." [38]

"Now, as for the flu, it really comes from a brain ailment. The lower part of the brain, locatedunder the optic nerves, suffers a form of paralysis." [39]

"What happens, however, when the liver's activity is too weak? ... If the liver isn't behavingproperly, the blood rushes to the surface of the body to replenish itself there ... Smallpox is theresult." [40]

"[T]he part of the human organism in which the child develops, the womb, is really like a mini-ature earth that has remained behind and is still in an ancient comet-like state." [41]

"These are the things which, arising from instinctive clairvoyance, underlie such intuitions asthose of the Indian Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma represented the active Being in world-spheres which may legitimately approach man. Vishnu represented those world-spheres which

may only approach man in so far as what has been built up must again be broken down, in sofar as it must be continually transformed. Shiva represented everything connected with theforces of destruction. And in the earlier stages of the flower of Indian civilization it was said thatBrahma is intimately related to all that is of the nature of the fire-beings, and the sylphs; Vishnuwith all that is of the nature of sylphs and undines; Shiva with all that is of the nature of undinesand gnomes. Generally speaking, when we go back to these more ancient conceptions, we findeverywhere the pictorial expressions for what must be sought today as lying behind the secretsof nature." [42]

Whatever is to be traced to ahrimanic influence is indirectly attributable to Lucifer;when, however, the luciferic influence has been so strong as immediately to call forth

the ahrimanic influence, then this influence is the more malicious. It anchors itself notonly in the transgressions of the astral body, but in those of the etheric body. It mani-fests itself in a consciousness lying deeper than our pain consciousness, causing dam-age not necessarily accompanied by pain, damage that renders useless the organwhich it attacks.

Let us suppose that in one incarnation an ahrimanic influence had been exercised on a beingbringing with it certain consequences. Now the man passes through the period between deathand a new birth, and reappears in a new incarnation. Then it will become manifest that some or-gan has been attacked by Ahriman; in other words, the etheric body has entered this organmore deeply than it should more deeply than normal. In such a case, precisely because ofthis defective organ, the man is even more open to temptations of error which are the work ofAhriman upon earth. By means of the organ which owes its defect to ahrimanic influence, andinto which the etheric body has too deeply penetrated, the man would, if he were to experiencethe whole of this process, become even more enmeshed in what Ahriman can effect, namely,Maya. Since nothing however produced by the material world as Maya can be carried into thespiritual world, the spiritual world withdraws further from him. For in that world there is to befound only truth and no illusion. The more he becomes entangled in the illusions effected byAhriman, the more are we impelled to enter even further into the external world of the senses,into the illusions of the physical senses, much further than would be the case without the defect-ive organ.

A counteracting effect comes into play, however, just as we have the effect of pain counteract-ing the luciferic influence. This counteracting effect will operate in such a way that the momentthere is any danger of our being linked too closely with the physical world of the senses, and ofour losing the forces which lead us up into the spiritual world, in that moment the organ is des-troyed; it will either be paralysed or else rendered too weak to be effective. A process of de-


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struction takes place. Thus if we see an organ approaching destruction, we must realise that weowe this to beneficial forces; the organ is taken from us so that we may find our way back intothe spiritual world. When there is no alternative of escape, certain forces do in fact destroy ourorgans or weaken them so that we may not become too greatly entangled in Maya or illusionand may find our way back into the spiritual world. [43]

Lucifer and Ahriman are the two chief demons in Steiner's cosmology. "A human beingcan fall ill. He gets pleurisy. What does it mean when we say he gets pleurisy? Itmeans there is too much of the luciferic element in him ... [T]he luciferic element is toopowerful and the ahrimanic too weak. I have to add something ahrimanic to balance itout ... Birch wood [sic] grows actively in the spring ... [T]he bark has excellent powersof growth. I kill these by making the birch wood into charcoal ... I made it into birchcharcoal, something ahrimanic. And I then make the birch charcoal into a powder andgive this to the person who has too much of the luciferic element in him with his pleur-isy." [Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999),

pp. 203-204. R.R. sketch, 2009, based on Fig. 28, p. 204. The scales show the need tobalance Lucifer's influence with Ahriman's influence.]
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Here you see, in schematic form, the beginning of the archangel Michael's reign. Thehorizontal line represents the division between the astral plane (above) and the physic-al world (below). The arc from the left represents the reign of Gabriel, which ended in1879. The arc to the right is Michael's reign, beginning in that year. Trouble, though:Mammon poked his snout in at about the same time.

"[I]n November of the year 1879 there occurred on the astral plane something verysimilar to a birth ... The rulership of Gabriel was replaced by another archangel, underwhose leadership we now stand, the archangel Michael. He is the radiant sun that eso-teric wisdom lets shine forth on a small band of people ... The radiant leadership of Mi-chael will again be replaced by a dark, horrible age that will begin around the year2400. Already today simultaneously with Michael a dark god has entered into his ruler-ship: the god Mammon.

"For esotericism, Mammon is not only the god of money. He is much more the leaderof all vile black powers. And his hordes attack not only human souls, but also the phys-

ical bodies of humans in order to gnaw away at them and ruin them. People speak ofbacteria a lot more today not because they know more about them, but because bac-teria have taken on a very special form today. And in the future they will get the upperhand in a terrifying way. When that black age approaches, then fraternal war will ragein a gruesome way, and poor human bodies will waste away, terribly afflicted by dis-eases and plagues. The stigma of sin will be impressed on human bodies visible toeveryone." [Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC LESSONS 1904-1909 (Steiner Books, 2007),pp. 232-233. R.R. sketch, 2009, based on b&w image on p. 232.] In case the forgoingleft any doubt, here's a clarification on one point: "Mammon, the spirit of hindrances

and darkness, has countless helpers who incarnate as bacteria." [Ibid., p. 208.]The small band to whom Michael radiates esoteric wisdom is, of course, the smallgroup to whom Steiner delivered "esoteric lessons": initiated Anthroposophists.

For more on bacteria, Michael, and Ahriman, see "Michael".

It's hard to top what we've already seen. Still, here is an interesting passage. Bringing

a boy with learning disabilities onto the lecture platform, Steiner used the boy to illus-trate some of his medical concepts. He focused particularly on the shape of the boy'shead. He said the boy could have been helped by eurythmy, a form of dance Steinerhimself invented:
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"And now, if you will begin to observe the child for yourselves (to the boy) Comehere a minute! you will find many things to notice. Let me draw your attention, first ofall, to the strongly developed lower half of the face. Look at the shape of the nose andthe mouth. The mouth is always a little open. With this symptom is connected also thepeculiar formation of the teeth. It is important to note these things, for they are unques-tionably bound up with the whole soul-and-spirit constitution of the child ... The forma-tion you see here in the jaws the jaws belong, of course, to the limb system

shouldbe completely taken into the head system. But in this case the head system isnot strong enough to bring the limb system fully into itself; consequently, externalforces work too powerfully upon this limb-system. Look at a well-formed human being,where the lower part of the head is in harmony with the rest of the head ... In the childbefore us ... the arms, and also the legs, have not the proportions they would have ifthey were brought into right relation with the upper part of the body, but have grown toobig ...

"Observe now how the head is narrow here (in front) on both sides, and pressed back;so we have in this boy the symptom of narrow-headedness, a sign that the intellectual

system is but little permeated with will [i.e., will power]. Thispart (at the back) ex-presses strong permeation by the will. The front part of the head is accessible only toexternal influences that come via sense-perception, whereas the back part of the headis accessible to all manner of influences from without [i.e., from the outside]. You havetherefore here a beginning of what manifests so strikingly in the arms and legs; thebrain enlarges and spreads out at the back of the head ...

"Here (in the front) as we remarked, the head is pressed together. In all probability thispoints back to a purely mechanical injury, either at birth or during pregnancy, a mech-anical injury in which we can see nothing else than a working of karma, for it can have

no connection with the forces of heredity ..."The entire system of the breath is very little under control, and breathing tends to be-come disturbed and uneasy. This is connected with the whole way in which the lower

jaw is formed ... Consequently, the boy is unable to develop within him the right andnecessary quantity of carbonic acid; he is deficient in carbonic acid ... Whatoughttohappen is that gradually, in the course of life, the whole system of movement in manshould become a servant of the intellectual system.(To the boy) Stand still a minute!

And now come here to me and do this! (Dr. Steiner makes a movement with his arm asif to take hold of something; the boy does not make the movement.) Never mind! We

mustn't force him. Do you see? It is difficult for him to do anything; he has not thepower to exercise the right control over his metabolism-and-limbs system ...

"What would have been the right educational treatment for this child in very earlyyears? Obviously a special effort should have been made to begin with CurativeEurythmy even before he was able to walk, simply moving his limbs oneself ineurythmic movements. If this had been done, then the movements carried out in thisway in the limbs would have been reflected in the nerves-and-senses organism, andsince at that early age everything, is still supple in the child, the form of the head couldactually have grown wider ...." [44]

As perhaps should be obvious, Dr. Steiner had no medical degree; his doctorate wasin philosophy. (And the wonder is that it wasn't revoked.)


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Roger Rawlings

Some illustrations on each page are closely connected to the essay on that page; others are not they provide general context.

[Health Research, 1972.]
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When propounding his weird medical teachings for an audience,Steiner sometimes drew blackboard illustrations but they added little.

"The intake of breath that goes down into the body from the head wantsto shape itself into a mummy. And it is only because the body works againstthis and brings about exhalation that this mummy is changed back again."[Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003),p. 71.My sketch of Steiner's sketch, 2009.]

Here is an item from the Waldorf Watch "news" page:

[Science] sees the heart as a pump that pumps blood through the body. Now there is nothingmore absurd than believing this.... Rudolf Steiner, PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SPIRITUALPSYCHOLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), p. 126. [T]he heart is indeed a sense organ forperceiving the bloods movement, not a pump as physicists [sic] claim; the coursing ofbloodisbrought about by our spirituality and vitality. Rudolf Steiner, AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE(SteinerBooks, 2000), p. 84.

Rudolf Steiner made a great many absurd statements. These rank among the most absurd. Yettoday Waldorf teachers and their representatives still try to justify Steiners absurdities whichthey embrace as profound wisdom. In 2002, The Association of Waldorf Schools of North Amer-ica published THE DYNAMIC HEART AND CIRCULATION. The editor, Craig Holdrege, says heconceived the book from a teachers perspective. [p. vi] What he means, clearly, is a Waldorfteachers perspective. And what sorts of statements speak to the Waldorf teachersperspective? Statements such as this: The prevailing view in conventional science and medi-cine is that the heart serves as a pump ... But this model cannot explain many phenomena ...The function of the heart, with regard to the blood returning in the veins, is to regulate resist-ance ... [T]he force that drives the blood into the heart is not the force of the hearts pumping ac-tion.... [pp. 74-75] The book offers ingenious arguments to counter the prevailing view in con-

ventional science and medicine, and there are shreds of truth on many of the books pages.But the overall project is irretrievably mistaken. The books goal is to contrive arguments, byhook and by crook, to show that Steiner was right and science is wrong. Consider this carefully,parents. Ask yourself whether you want Steiners fervent followers people who reject realityand who rationalize mystical nonsense ask yourself whether you want such people to edu-cate your children. Into what dim vistas might they lead your young ones?

(The argumentds made in the book are subtle and complex. To some degree, they changeSteiners meaning in the process of trying to defend that meaning, a dubious approach at best.Essentially, the authors share Streiners revulsion at a simple, mechanistic description of the hu-man constitution, and in this they have a point. The heart is not a simple mechanical pump; it is

unlike, say, a bicycle pump. The circulation of the blood is affected by various internal biologicalfactors, including the intricacies of the vascular system. In the end, however, the authors are ledastray by their determination to affirm an esoteric vision. Calling the heart a pump may be, atsome level, merely a metaphor. But calling the heart the seat of love and wisdom is an evenmore misleading metaphor a common one, but a mistaken one. The truth, ultimately, is thatthe heart does pump blood, and no amount of obfuscation and argumentation can change this.


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A central characteristic of mystical thought is the refusal to face facts squarely. Mystics prefertheir fantasies to reality; they feel ennobled and elevated by their presumed possession of su-perior, secret knowledge. They feel a warm glow in the very woolliness of their thinking. As aresult, they wander into and get lost within the fogs that they themselves generate.)

"The whole soul configuration of the human being is in the ear.In our ears we actually carry with us a tiny human being, for the human being has feel-ing, will and understanding.We are made up of lots of tiny human beings."[BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924, p. 75.My sketch of Steiner's sketch, 2009.]

The largest supplier of Anthroposophical medicines and preparations is known asWeleda [see http://www.weleda.com/]. Here's part of a grovy bit of self-description: "Itall goes back to 1921 and something called anthroposophy. This movement, stemmingfrom the teachings of philosopher Dr. Rudolf Steiner, encourages the individual to seehis or her body, mind and spirit as intrinsically linked to our world ... Steiner, along withDr. Ita Wegman, got together with a team of dedicated scientists and doctors to de-termine just how they might use this philosophy to take care of their patientsneeds ... They started by creating one of the worlds first Biodynamic gardens to growwhat they needed.The companys new name couldnt have been more appropriate:Weleda, after the Celtic goddess of wisdom and healing." [http://usa.weleda.com/shar-

ing-our-story/our-history.aspx]
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"Here we have a secret karmic connection between illness and further development,for in reality illness is a process of further development. In order that the soul developsthe power to form an organ in the way it needs, the unsuitable organ has to be des-troyed and rebuilt again by the soul forces ... Strictly speaking all our strength was ac-quired by the overcoming of obstacles in previous incarnations. Our present capacitiesare the result of our illnesses in earlier lives ... We become capable of everything thatwe ourselves have taken through the process of destroying and rebuilding. This has

been felt to be true by all those people who, in the various religions, have connected avery exalted being with this process of destroying and rebuilding. In the religious be-liefs of the Indians Shiva represents the ruling powers that destroy and then restorethings to life again." [Rudolf Steiner, THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLU-TION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981), "Illness and Karma", GA 107. R.R. sketch, 2010.]
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"Take, first of all, man's physical body (red) ...This is man's etheric body body (blue); this is the human astral body (yellow);[and] here we have man's ego [center]...[W]e must be clear about the fact that the whole world actually dwellsin man's physical, etheric, and astral bodies." Rudolf Steiner,MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY(Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 156-157.[R.R., 2009 - my sketch based on the one in the book.]
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"Once I knew a man who had quite an unusual forehead. A Greek forehead is different.In Greek statues we find foreheads that slope backwards. This man actually had a pro-nounced bulge, and his forebrain was actually pushed out. I am convinced that thisman, whose brain was pushed forward so much, possessed a particularly well-formedabdomen and never suffered from diarrhea or constipation ... [H]is powerful, protrudingforehead never permitted disorders of the abdomen. You can see from this that a man'-

s forehead is related in a remarkable way to his abdomen." Rudolf Steiner,FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 150-151.[R.R., 2009 - my sketch based on p. 150.]

Our brain would be a thoroughly unpractical instrument for understanding, if it were towork as physical brain alone. By means of occultism one can get an idea of how the

brain would work if it had to depend on itself. In that case a man would be able to thinkonly of what related to the inner requirements of his body. He would think, for example,'Now I am hungry, now I am thirsty...' ... Our brain however is continually infiltrated bythe fine etheric streams which flow upwards from the heart. These etheric currentshave direct relationship with a delicate and important organ of the brain, the so-calledpineal gland. The fine, etheric currents ... continually interpenetrate and lave [sic] thepineal gland, making it glow ... By way of our pineal gland, our ethertised blood systemreacts directly upon the brain. You will find this subject more fully dealt with, whenthose lectures appear which I gave in Prague: 'Occult Physiology.'"[Rudolf Steiner, WONDERS OF THE WORLD (Kessinger; facsimile of 1929

edition), pp. 105-106.]
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[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005.]

"The way in which healing processes are continuously working downwards in us callsforth a feeling of pleasure in the higher hierarchies [of spiritual beings]. It constitutesthe joy of the higher hierarchies in the earthly world. They look down and continuallyfeel illness arising out of what streams upward in man from the earthly, from what re-mains of the earthly attributes of the substances. And they see that the impulsesofforces that work out of the earthly realm, forces that lie in the air that moves allaround and so on, are continually active as processes of healing. This arouses satis-faction in the higher hierarchies." Rudolf Steiner, HARMONY OF THE CREATIVEWORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 172. [R.R. sketch, 2009.]
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"This is altogether a remarkable connection: from the cosmic angle medicine is cosmicpoetry. Indeed, many secrets of the world consist in the fact that something that is sickor that leads to sickness at one level is the highest, most perfect, is beautiful at anotherlevel." [Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press,2003), p. 129. R. R. sketch, 2009, based on Steiner's.] Sounds sort of nice, but...

Skeletal/anatomical images from www.fromoldbooks.org.

One may now ask, what is to be ones attitude towards cancer! We have seen how theetheric body is able to develop over-strong forces from itself in some particular organ.The centrifugal forces that is, the forces that tend outwards into the Cosmos be-

come too powerful; the astral body and the Ego are too weak to counteract them. Spir-itual knowledge now comes to ones aid. One can now try either to make the astralbody stronger, in which case one administers something from the plant kingdom, orone must restrain the etheric body, and in that case one makes use of the animal king-dom.

"Spiritual investigation has led to the adoption of the former course that which relatesto the astral body. In order to cure cancer, the forces of the astral body must be madestronger. And it may now be admitted that the remedy has really been discovered inthe plant kingdomThe tree, which is rooted directly in the earth, makes use of theforces which it absorbs from the earth. The mistletoe, growing on the tree, uses whatthe tree gives it; the tree is, in a sense, the earth for the mistletoe. The mistletoe, there-fore, brings about artificially that which, when it is not present, results in the 'swellings'which are due to a hypertrophy of the trees etheric organisation. The mistletoe takesaway what the tree only gives up when it has too little physical substance, so that itsetheric element is excessive. The excess of the etheric passes out of the tree into themistletoe.

"When the mistletoe is prepared in such a way that this superabundant etheric qualitywhich it has taken from the tree is administered to a person under certain conditions,by injection (and, since we are observing all these facts in a spiritual manner), we gainthe following information: that the mistletoe, as an external substance, absorbs what ismanifest in the human body as the rampant etheric forces in cancer. [Rudolf Stein-er, An Outline of Anthroposophical Medical Research: Abridged Report of Two Lec-tures (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1924), authorized translation.]

And so, gentlemen, if for instance a child is becoming weak in his head inattent-

ive, hyperactive he will usually have a corresponding symptom: worms in his intest-ines. Worms develop easily in the intestines if the head forces are too weak, becausethe head does not then work down strongly enough into the rest of the body. Wormsfind no lodging in a human body if the head forces are working down strongly into the
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intestines. You can see how magnificently the human body is arranged! everything isrelated. And if ones child has worms, one should realize the child has become weak inhis head. Also whoever wants to be a teacher has to know these things if there arepersons who at a later age are weak-minded, one can be sure they have had wormswhen they were young.

And so what must one do if one observes this in the child? The simplest remedy is togive him carrots to eat for a while with his other food, of course; naturally, one

couldnt just feed him on carrots alone. Carrots are the root of the plant. They growdown in the earth and have a large quantity of minerals. They have the forces of theearth in them, and when they are taken into the stomach, they are able to work upthrough the blood into the head. Only substances rich in minerals are able to reach thehead. Substances rich in minerals, root substances, give strength to a human being byway of the head. That is extraordinarily important. It is through carrots that the upper-most parts of the head become strong which is precisely what the human beingneeds in order to be inwardly firm and vigorous, not soft. [Rudolf Steiner, NUTRITION(Rudolf Steiner Press, 2008), pp. 104-105.]

Here are excerpts from the essay "anthroposophic medicine"at The Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carrollhttp://www.skepdic.com/anthroposophicmedicine.html

Anthroposophic medicine (AM) is medicine that has been infused with the teachings ofRudolf Steiner.

...One kind of remedy frequently offered by AM is the homeopathic remedy, which isnot surprising since classical homeopathy is rooted in vitalism, as is Steiner's philo-sophy. Like homeopathy, AM also features a highly individualized treatment of eachpatient. However, since Steiner believed in reincarnation, an AM doctor has to try tofigure out "the particular state of soul and spirit" of the patient in regard to its many

lives, past, present, and future.

...Steiner believed the model for the human body should be of a 3-part system: wetakes things in, we put things out, and some things we keep constant byrhythm...Health is when these systems interact harmoniously. Illness is disharmonyand treatment may include not only medicine but also art therapy (painting, modeling,music, singing and creative speech), eurythmy, and counseling. In addition to

...According to Steiner, a human being is "an eternal individuality." Because of the indi-vidualized nature of treatment, and for ethical reasons, AM doctors don't do double-

blind controlled experiments. The fact that scientific testing of remedies is not donemight explain some of the difficulty AM has in conforming to the law.

"Among the best known anthroposophic medicines are the mistletoe preparations forthe treatment of cancer (Abnova viscum, Helixor, Iscador, Iscucin, Visorel)."
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[William T. Jarvis, Anthroposophical Medicine, 1997.] Mistletoe was first proposed asa cancer treatment by Steiner in 1920. Steiner reasoned that since mistletoe is abotanical parasite, it would cure cancer, which he thought of as a parasite on humantissue and organs. However, despite this clever analogy, mistletoe is listed by the

American Cancer Society as a unproven cancer remedy. [Jarvis 1997].

...[A]ccording to Dr. Edzard Ernst, "some studies suggest that serious harm might be

caused by mistletoe injections. Rather than suppressing cancer, mistletoe might pro-mote tumour cell growth in some malignancies."

...[A]nthroposophic medicine is even more out of touch with modern, science-basedmedicine than homeopathy. AM not only thinks that the vital spirit plays a major role inhealth a view it shares with homeopathy but AM also brings into play other meta-physical entities it refers to variously as the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego.

AM thinks the soul, the senses, and consciousness are beings that exist independentlyof the body and that such things as herbs and essential oils can bring these things intoharmony with each other and with the physical body. AM is certainly in harmony with

Steiner's basic approach to reality, which was to think he had special powers to seedirectly into occult realities without the bother of tests in experience or replication byothers. When you believe you have clairvoyant powers, you don't feel the need toprove your claims the way other scientists do. Steiner approached medicine the sameway he approached everything else from astrology to Atlantis to education to farmingto metaphysics: He dictated his visions. Why anyone considers him a scientist is agreat mystery. His notion of science as involving the explanation of how immaterial en-tities affect material entities is the very opposite of science.

For an exploration of karma,please use this link: "Karma"

For Steiner's view on abnormality,please use this link: "Abnormal".

Quotations there also bear on quack medicine,human freedom, the central position of humans in the cosmos,and the temperaments of nations.

The following is excerpted from"The Deadly Perils of Rejected Knowledge"

by Thomas R. DeGregoriat the American Council on Science and Healthhttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asp
https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/karmahttps://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/abnormalhttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttps://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/karmahttps://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/abnormalhttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asp


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To some, beliefs about alternative therapies may seem harmless, but there was a re-cent case in Germany in which two homeopathic doctors who opposed the MMR vac-cine were reportedly responsible for a measles epidemic involving over 700 children,thirty of whom were hospitalized. There is fear that the rising infection rate could resultin children dying needlessly.

A story in the London Times (March 6, 2002) by Alan Hall traces these practices to theWaldorf School, "which actively encourages people not to have their children vaccin-ated. Now we have an epidemic."

...In the United States, a Waldorf School is among those schools in Boulder, Coloradowhere children are not receiving their pertussis and other immunization with fatalconsequences both for those children and their younger siblings who have not yetbeen vaccinated.

...[P]arents with infants who have not yet received their full complement of vaccinations

might be wise to inquire of their New Age/alternative medicine friends whether theirchildren have been immunized before allowing them to come over and visit.

ENDNOTES

[1] See, e.g., Anthroposophic Medicine, holistic.com . The complete set of human fac-ulties and parts is long and intricate. Steiner spoke variously of our seven-fold andnine-fold natures.

[2] See, e.g., Childhood Illness: Waldorf View, cited at openwaldorf.org .

[3] Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp.165-166.

[4] Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), pp. 90-91.

Steiners followers often accept his guidance concerning vaccination. From a news ac-count in early 2009: At the private Eugene [Oregon] Waldorf School on McLeanBoulevard south of 28th Avenue, three of every four of its nearly 200 students lack oneor more of the vaccines Oregon requires against 11 diseases. Their parents have filledout religious exemption forms.... [Anne Williams, Medical Authorities Want to Determ-ine Why Certain Populations Shun Vaccines, THE REGISTER-GUARD, Jan. 10,2009.]

A similar situation arose in Colorado at the Shining Mountain Waldorf School ...[N]early half of the 292 students at Shining Mountain have received only a few, and insome cases none, of the twenty-one childhood vaccinations mandated by Coloradostate law ... The shunning of one of the vaccines, against diphtheria, tetanus, andpertussis, has resulted in a revival of whooping cough ... The parents at Shining Moun-
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asphttp://holistic.com/http://www.openwaldorf.org/http://holistic.com/http://www.openwaldorf.org/


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tain are influenced by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner ... Steiner (who was not a med-ical doctor) believed that children's spirits benefited from being tempered in the fires ofa good inflammation ... Shining Mountain's director, Robert Schiappacasse ... becamea little concerned, he told me, when the baby of one of the school's secretariescoughed himself into a hernia after visiting the school during an outbreak.[Arthur Al-len, Bucking the Herd, THE ATLANTIC, Sept. 2002.]

California: A distressing new statewide report shows that an increasing number ofCalifornia parents are sending their children to school without routine vaccinations. Thenumbers are astounding: In the Bay Area, the highest exemption rate from kinder-garten immunization was nearly 69 percent in 2008, at the Marin Waldorf School inSan Rafael ... After a whooping cough outbreak at the East Bay Waldorf School (64percent exemption rate for kindergartners) last May, [the Department of PublicHealth] made the difficult decision to close the school for a day and order all the par-ents to show proof of antibiotic prescription for their children. [On School Vaccina-tions, THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, April 1, 2009.]

Many Waldorf schools overseas also oppose vaccination: Measles remains a public

health problem in Europe, and there are serious doubts that it can be eliminated by2010 as health officials had hoped ... [V]accination rates are lower in families ratedhard to reach by the authorities and in schools that practice homeopathy and themedical philosophy of the 19th- and early-20th-century theorist Rudolf Steiner. [Don-ald G. McNeil, Jr., Eradication Goal for Measles Is Unlikely, Report Says, THE NEWYORK TIMES, Jan. 13, 2009.]

A measles outbreak at a Waldorf school in Switzerland, early in 2009, creatednews. The Ecole Rudolf Steiner[translation: Rudolf Steiner School] near LausanneTuesday reported 17 cases of measles ... Dr Eric Masserrey, who heads the office re-

sponsible for overseeing epidemics, called the outbreak unprecedented as his teammoved into action to control the spread of the potentially deadly disease ... The healthdepartment is also checking to see why the students doctors appear not to have repor-ted the cases promptly, as required by Swiss law. Students are allowed to attendschool in Switzerland if they have not been vaccinated, but if they are found to havebeen exposed to the highly infectious viral disease they will be told to stay home for 21days. [Crissier, Vaud, Switzerland, genevalunch.com, Feb. 5, 2009.] An update thenext day added: Four new schools were affected Thursday when brothers and sistersof the 17 students with measles from the Rudolf Steiner school in Crissier also fell

ill. [Crissier, Vaud, Switzerland, genevalunch.com, Feb. 6, 2009.]To summarize the Steiner position: Steiner did not absolutely forbid vaccination, but he warnedagainst it. Vaccination is part of the modern insanity that opposes spirituality. "People will actu-ally long for the time when the Spiritual is universally deemed to be insanity, craziness! At-tempts will be made to achieve this end by inoculations; just as viruses have been discoveredas means of protection against illnesses, so certain inoculations will be used to influence the hu-man body in such a way that it provides no place for the spiritual proclivities of the soul. Humanbeings will be immunised against any predisposition for spiritual ideas ... such, at least, will bethe endeavour. They will try by inoculation to bring it about that even in childhood, human be-ings lose the urge towards the spiritual life." R. Steiner, BEHIND THE SCENES OF EX-TERNAL HAPPENINGS (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1947), lecture 1, GA 178.

Curing or preventing diseases can be a grave error, interfering with karma. People need andeven want to have certain illnesses, even fatal ones. [P]eople may virtually be driven to placeswhere it is possible to get an infection in order to find in this the compensating effects for certainkarmic causes within them; people are even driven to what one might call fatal life events to find


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such compensation. R. Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press,1995), p. 167.

[5] Anthroposophically Extended Medicine, defendingsteiner.com .

[6] Rescue Remedy, openwaldorf.com. (See link above.)

[7] Treating Cancer with Misteltoe [sic], openwaldorf.com. (See link above.)

[8] Rudolf Steiner, FREUD, JUNG, AND SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY,(SteinerBooks,2001), pp. 124-125.

Cf. [E]ach day, the average heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons(7,571 liters) of blood. [Heart Information Cen-ter, www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Anatomy/anatomy2.cfm.]

[9] Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations ofWaldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 60.

[10] Rudolf Steiner, INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE (Anthropo-

sophic Press, 1999), p. 198.[11] anthroposophic medicine, skepdic.com .

You may also want to consult http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudos-cience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/: "A couple of years ago, Prof Edzard Ernst (co-author of Trick or Treatment with Simon Singh) attempted to carry out a systematic re-view of all randomised clinical trials of Anthroposophical medicine as either a sole oradjunctive treatment for any illness or condition, but failed to find a single study thatmet the inclusion criteria after running seven separate literature searches."

Many Web sources are unreliable, so treat them with care. These sources at least areconsistent with one another and with my own research. (Disclosure: I find skepdic.comreliable, but then some of my own work is quoted there.)

[12] Robert Smith-Hald, Growing Up Being Made Sick by Anthroposophy," http://wal-dorfcritics.org.

[13] Sharon Lombard, Spotlight on Anthroposophy,http://waldorfcritics.org .

[14] Rudolf Steiner, FROM SYMPTOM TO REALITY IN MODERN HISTORY (RudolfSteiner Press, 1976), p. 89.

[15] Rudolf Steiner, THE HEALING PROCESS (SteinerBooks, 2000), pp. 11-12.

[16] Rudolf Steiner, INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE (Steiner-Books, 2007), p. 265.

[17] Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p.241.

[18] Rudolf Steiner, POLARITIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF MANKIND, (Steiner Books,1987), p. 58.

[19] Ibid., p. 196.

[20] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, pp. 59-60.

[21] INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE, p. 65.
http://defendingsteiner.com/http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Anatomy/anatomy2.cfmhttp://skepdic.com/http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudoscience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudoscience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/http://waldorfcritics.org/http://waldorfcritics.org/http://waldorfcritics.org/http://defendingsteiner.com/http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Anatomy/anatomy2.cfmhttp://skepdic.com/http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudoscience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudoscience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/http://waldorfcritics.org/http://waldorfcritics.org/http://waldorfcritics.org/


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[22] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, pp. 142-145.

[23] Rudolf Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 60.

[24] Rudolf Steiner, HUMAN QUESTIONS AND COSMIC ANSWERS (Anthroposoph-ical Pub. Co., 1960), p. 38.


[26] Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999),p. 131. Steiners full wording is bowels organization.

[27] FROM COMETS TO COCAINE, p. 284.

[28] American Diabetes Association, Mendosa.com , EUobserver, Encyclopedia Britan-nica, etc.

[29] Rudolf Steiner, THE HEALING PROCESS (SteinerBooks, 2000), p. 73.

[30] Rudolf Steiner, BEES: Lectures (SteinerBooks, 1998), p. 147.


[32] THE HEALING PROCESS, pp. 141-142.

[33] Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTAL TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner, 2002), p. 62.

[34] Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION OF MORALITY (SteinerBooks,1995), p. 31.

[35] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, p. 211.

[36] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (Anthroposophic Press, 1974),

p. 42.[37] FROM COMETS TO COCAINE, p. 216.

[38] Ibid., p. 240.

[39] Ibid., p. 244.

[40] Ibid., p. 254.

[41] Ibid., p. 266.

[42] Rudolf Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner

Press, 1970), VIII: Nov. 3, 1923.

[43] Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), lec-ture 7, Forces of Nature, Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes and Epidemics in Relationto Karma, GA 120.

[44] Rudolf Steiner, CURATIVE EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 6,Jul 1, 1924.

I have excerpted from a long passage. You can find the entire textat http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19240701p01.html.

Because Web site postings are subject to change,I should state that I visited most of the sites mentioned here during the first half of Feb-ruary, 2007.
http://www.mendosa.com/http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19240701p01.htmlhttp://www.mendosa.com/http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19240701p01.html


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As of early in October, 2008, all still seemed to be online.

the dangers of

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