Illness

Illnesses in Man are deviations from a normal balanced or perfect functioning, caused unbalances in our bodily constitution across Man's bodily principles. Even if the illness manifests in the physical body, the origin may lie at a higher bodily principles such as the astral or etheric body, or the unbalance between the different principles.

Therefore - with the span of one human lifetime - one can distinguish illnesses ..

[1] arising out of the Human 'I', and which have their physical manifestation in irregularities in the functioning of the blood
- eg definite forms of chronic illnesses are connected with one or another basic soul character of the I (1908-11-10-GA107)
[2] that originate in irregularities in the Human astral body, and manifesting in irregularities in the nervous system
[3] that originate in the Human etheric body manifests in the glandular system
[4] in the Human physical body, that primarily have external causes.

Furthermore there are illnesses that are the emanation of causes from previous lifetimes:

[5] karmic illnesses

The evolutionary origin of illness has to do with the individualization of Man through the Fall or the Luciferic infection in the Lemurian epoch, the start of physical incarnation and gender, and is coined by the term 'original sin' (see 1908-12-08-GA107 on the page of Model for hereditary physical body).

Aspects

what is illness, its evolutionary origin, and what are the main different types of illnesses
cause of illness by the human double (1917-11-16-GA178), and the need for geographical medicine
- organic physical illnesses that emerge spontaneously from within are all created by the ahrimanic double of Man
- nervous illnesses (neurasthenic, neurotic) are caused by the luciferic double of Man
cause of illness can always be traced to the metabolic subsystem: "if we study the human metabolic system in isolation we find it constantly imbued with every kind of tendency towards illness .. the origin of internal illnesse (not those caused by external injury) must always be looked for in the metabolic system" (1923-11-09-GA230)
healing: principles of treatment
different types of medical treatment
origin of illness in the soul
- A bad habit (like a particular passion) in one life is the cause of sickness in the next, whilst a good habit will of course be a cause of health. This leads to dispositions to catch certain diseases, eg he disposition to catch infections results from a highly developed egotistical acquisitive drive, a selfish desire to make material gains for oneself. (1906-03-14-GA097)
- devastating effect caused by taking in ugly things and hideousness (1908-11-16-GA107) - re also link with Truth Beauty Good
polio or 'infantile paralysis' (1923-10-31-GA351), explanation based on effects of soil (examples experiments potentization and plant growth)
for 'mental illnesses', see: Schizophrenia#Mental diseases and Schizophrenia#Epidemic mental diseases

epidemics

large groups of people impacted by an illness are the karmic result of earlier wrongdoing (eg lying) (1905-10-04-GA093a)
increase in suicide epidemics (1917-11-17-GA266/3)
the danger of spiritual death and insanity in current and future times if the etheric body loosens and Man only believes in the physical material - not realizing the realities he is experiencing (1908-04-13-GA102) - see Human etheric body#1908-04-13-GA102. See also Schizophrenia.
leprosy in medieval times was a consequence of the fear and terror European ancestors had known with the migrations and conquests of the Huns and Mongols (late races whose astral bodies contained decomposing astral matter) .. European astral bodies were infected by this. The disease that ancestors had known in mind and spirit became physical in later generations. (1906-03-14-GA097)
importance of proper proportion of sleeping to waking, and "tremendous significance that the abnormal attitude of the human being to waking and sleeping has for epidemics and the susceptibility to epidemic illnesses" and "There are people who, as the result of too much sleep, initiate certain processes in the human organism, processes that ought not be set in motion because waking life should not be broken up by such long periods of sleep. These people have a much stronger predisposition to epidemic illnesses and are less able to resist them." (1920-04-07-GA314)
epidemics of insomnia, sleeplessness (1924-04-14-GA309, 1924-04-23-GA316)
- impact of materialism, not thinking but what goes back into his feeling and will weaves in his organs, and if people do not deepen themselves spiritually they will not be able to sleep properly.

Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

Main courses

GA107 of 1908-1909: Disease, Karma and Healing: Spiritual-Scientific Enquiries Into the Nature of the Human Being
GA348 of 1922-1923: Health and illness

Epidemics - key lectures

see: Schizophrenia#Epidemic mental diseases

present causes of future epidemics

1906-06-02-GA094
1907-05-30-GA099
1907-06-22-GA100
1908-06-14-GA098

spiritual background of epidemics

1917-10-14-GA177
1918-10-20-GA185

karma and epidemics

1906-03-14-GA097
1906-10-15-GA096
1910-05-19/22/25/26-GA120 - see 1910-05-GA120 cycle
- 1910-05-18-GA120 - Karma in Relation to Disease and Health
- 1910-05-19-GA120 - The Curability and Incurability of Diseases in Relation to Karma
- 1910-05-20-GA120 -Natural and Accidental Illness in Relationship to Karma

Reference extracts

1903-10-02-GA069C

describes the origin of suffering and inheritable diseases. It is described that inheritance of diseases is a recent phenomenum that did not always exist, these have a link with the current materialistic times. The comparison is made with an animal that has to breathe bad air, and cannot fight this condition but can only become ill. Similarly spiritual Man is weakened and cannot develop enough or be strong enough to fight the circumstances, things have developed such that the physical relations have given such a tremendous burden for the soul and

.. a soul in our days is fully powerless against the physical constitution of the body

1905-10-04-GA093A

The inner always comes later to outer expression. An illness is the karmic result of earlier wrongdoing, for instance, lying. When something of this kind becomes outer reality, it manifests as illness. Epidemics can be traced far back to the misdeeds of a people. They are something imperfect which from being inward has been exteriorised.

1906-03-14-GA097

A bad habit in one life is the cause of sickness in the next, whilst a good habit will of course be a cause of health.
A particular passion will mean a particular disease in the next life. Here one would be able to see how someone acquires a disposition to catch infections.
We know very well that some people can go to anyone, to any place where epidemics or infectious diseases prevail and will not be in danger of catching these diseases. Someone else picks them up from the gutter, as it were, catching them immediately. It all depends on the disposition if we catch things or not. Initiates know very well that the disposition to catch infections results from a highly developed egotistical acquisitive drive, a selfish desire to make material gains for oneself.
Anyone who wants to get rich in one life, is doing himself harm where his next incarnation is concerned. This egotistical drive for material gain and riches is a property of the ether body that will show itself as a disposition to catch infectious diseases in the next life.
Anyone wishing to know more about health and sickness will, however, have to remember that many different factors are involved. The causes of sickness need not be due to individual karma. There is also a national karma where ill-health is concerned.
This can be seen from the following observation. It concerns specific aspects in the health of races and whole nations. We all know the history of the tribal migrations in earlier times. We know that a number of tribes from the East—Huns, Mongols—migrated to Europe. They poured into the country, coming from Asia, and encountered the Germanic tribes. Those Huns, and the Mongolian race altogether, were late survivors of the Atlanteans—this is evident from the name Attila or Ath; they were remnants of that great race. The Germanic peoples, Persians and Indians were more advanced races, the Mongols Atlanteans who had remained stationary at a particular point and were now in decline.
The main body of humanity was progressing but individual lower races like these remained behind, forming enclaves. The astral bodies of those late races contained decomposing astral matter. This did, of course, also come to us in large quantities.
The Europeans faced the approaching hordes in fear and terror, and this fear and terror they felt made the decomposing astral matter thrive even more. Fear and terror are properties of the astral body that encourage such harmful influences. European astral bodies were infected, and in later generations this infection emerged as leprosy, the dreadful disease that had disastrous effects in medieval times. It was the physical consequence of the influence Mongol astral bodies had had on European astral bodies. The channel, as it were, through which this influence poured into European bodies was the fear and terror the Germanic peoples felt when those wild hordes poured across the borders into their countries.
Here we can see how diseases arise as national karma, being passed on from generation to generation. The ancestors had known the disease in mind and spirit, in later generations it became physical.
This is the meaning of the words ‘visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation’. [Exodus 20:5] We may take them quite literally, for they refer to this kind of national karma.

1908-11-10-GA107

describes four categories of illness

1908-11-16-GA107

Now we arrive at something that will not come easily to the consciousness of present-day Man. Quite terrible wrongs are being committed in this connection. Only those who can penetrate into spiritual science know the subtle ways in which health and sickness develop.
If you go through the streets of a big city and take into your soul the ugly things that are on display in windows and signs, it has a devastating effect.
Materialistic science has no conception of the extent to which the seeds of illness lie in this kind of hideousness. They seek the causes of illness in bacilli, and do not realize in what a round about way illness has its origin in the soul.
Only people familiar with spiritual science will know what it means to take various images into himself.

1908-12-08-GA107

talks about the effect of mineral medicines

1909-01-26-GA107

discusses illness and karma

A person does not need to know about all this, yet he will be aware of its effect. This effect appears in the form of some illness, and here lies the karmic connection between what happened in a previous life and the illness. The spiritual cause of the illness will guide the whole process in such a way that the person thereby becomes capable of carrying out the deed of compensation the next time he has the opportunity. To put it another way, in our twentieth year we are not capable of doing a particular deed. The urge is there, nevertheless, and the soul wants to do it. What does the soul do instead? It struggles, as it were, with its unusable organ, attacks it and destroys it. When the organ that should have been instrumental in carrying out the deed externally has been destroyed by these soul forces, then comes the inevitable reaction, which we call the process of healing, and the forces of the organism have to be called up to restore the organ. This organ, which was destroyed because it was unfit to perform the task, is rebuilt through the illness so as to be capable of performing it, although by the time the illness is over it might well be too late. But then the soul has now gained the strength to mould the growth and development of this organ in the course of life in such a way that in the next incarnation the deed can be carried out. Thus illness can be the very thing that makes us fit to carry out our karmic obligations in another life.
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 develops the power to form an organ in the way it needs, the unsuitable organ has to be destroyed and rebuilt again by the soul forces.
Here we come upon a law in human life that has to be described somewhat as follows: Man has to acquire his strength by overcoming obstacles in the world, one after another. Strictly speaking all our strength was acquired by the overcoming of obstacles in previous incarnations. Our present capacities are the result of our illnesses in earlier lives.

1910-05-20-GA120

If illnesses are the karmic results of spiritual or other events called forth or experienced by the soul, if they are the metamorphosis of such causes, might we not then also suppose that the result of the metamorphosis, namely, the illness, might be avoided — or do we learn nothing of this from spiritual facts? Might it not be avoided if we could replace, for the good of our education, the healing processes which are drawn from the organism to combat the disease. Could we not replace these by their spiritual counterpart, their spiritual equivalent? Should we not thus, if we were sufficiently wise, transform illness into a spiritual process and accomplish through our soul forces the self-education that would otherwise be accomplished through illness?
The feasibility of this may be demonstrated by an example. Here again we must insist that only those examples are given which have been investigated by Spiritual Science. They are not hypothetical assertions but actual ‘cases.’ A certain person contracts measles in later life, and we seek for the karmic connection in this case. We find that this case of measles appeared as the karmic effect of occurrences in a preceding life — occurrences that may be thus described: In a preceding life the individuality in question disliked concerning himself with the external world but occupied himself a great deal with himself, though not in the ordinary egotistical sense. He investigated much, meditated much, though not with regard to the facts of the external world, but confined himself to the inner soul life. We meet many people to-day who believe that through self-concentration and through brooding within themselves, they will arrive at the solution of world riddles. The person in question thought he could order his life through inner meditation how to act in one instance or another without accepting any teaching from others. The weakness of the soul resulting from this led to the formation of forces during existence between death and re-birth which exposed the organism comparatively late in life to an attack of measles.
We might now ask: if on the one hand we have the attack of measles which is the physical karmic effect of an earlier life, how is it then with the soul? For the earlier life will also result through karmic action in a certain condition of the soul.
This soul condition will prove itself to be such that the personality in question, during the life in which the attack of measles took place, was again and again subject to self-deception. Thus in the self-deception we must see the psychic karmic result of this earlier life, and in the attack of measles the physical karmic result.
Let us now assume that this personality before developing measles had succeeded in gaining such soul forces that he was no longer exposed to all kinds of self-deception, having completely corrected this failing. In this case the acquired soul force would render the attack of measles quite unnecessary, since the tendencies brought forth in this organism during its formation had been effaced through the stronger soul forces acquired by self-education. If we contemplate life as a whole and examine in detail our experiences, considering them always from this standpoint, we should invariably find that external knowledge will bear out in every detail what has here been stated. And what I have said about a case of measles can lead to an explanation why measles is one of the illnesses of child-hood. For the failings I have mentioned are present in a great many lives and especially in certain periods did they prevail in many lives. When such a personality enters existence he will be anxious to make the corresponding correction as soon as possible. In the period between birth and the general appearance of children's complaints which effect an organic self-education, there can as a rule be no question of any education of the soul.
From this we see that in a certain respect we can really speak of a disease being transformed back into a spiritual process. And it is most significant that when this process has entered the soul as a life principle, it will evoke a viewpoint that has a healing effect upon the soul. We need not be surprised that in our time we are able to influence the soul so little. Anyone regarding our present period from the standpoint of Spiritual Science will understand why so many medical men, so many doctors become materialists. For most people never occupy themselves with anything which has vital force. All the stuff produced today is devoid of vital force for the soul. That is why anyone wishing to work for Spiritual Science feels in this anthroposophical activity something extremely wholesome, for Spiritual Science can again bring to men something which enters the soul so that it is drawn away from what is acting in the physical organism. But we must not confuse what appears at the beginning of such a movement as Anthroposophy with what this movement can be in reality. Things may be brought into the Anthroposophical Movement which prevail in the physical world, for people on becoming Anthroposophists often bring to Anthroposophy exactly the same interests and also all the bad habits which they had outside. There is thus brought in much of the degeneracy of our age, and when some such degeneracy appears in the persons in question, the world says that this is the result of Anthroposophy. That is of course a cheap statement.
If we now see the karmic thread passing from one incarnation to another, we grasp only the one aspect of truth. For anyone beginning to understand this, many questions will arise which will be touched upon in the course of these lectures. First of all we must deal with the question: What difference is there between an illness due to external causes and an illness where the cause lies exclusively in the human organism itself. We are tempted to dispose of the latter illnesses by saying that they come of their own accord without any external provocation. But this is not so. In a certain sense we are justified in saying that illnesses come to us if we have a special disposition for the illness within us. A great many forms of illness, however, we shall be able to trace to external causes; not indeed everything that happens to us, but much that befalls us from outside. If we break a leg for instance, we are obliged to account for it by external causes. We must also include within external causes the effects of the weather, and numerous cases of disease which come to people living in slum dwellings. Here again we envisage a wide field. An experienced person looking on the world will find it easy to explain why the modern trend of the medical faculty is to seek the causes of illness in external influences, and especially in microbes. Of these a witty gentleman (Tröhls-Lund) said not without justice: ‘Today it is said that illnesses are provoked by microbes, just as it was formerly said that they came from God, the devil, and so forth.’ In the thirteenth century it was said that illnesses came from God; in the fifteenth it was said that they came from the devil; later it was said that illnesses came from the humours, today we say that illnesses come from microbes! Such are the views that in the course of time give place to one another.

1923-11-09-GA230

see: Working of substances and their forces#1923-11-09-GA230

1917-11-16-GA178

is about geographical medicine

And here something is disclosed that in the future must really be followed up if the human race is not to experience endless hindrances, really endless horrors.
This double about which I have spoken is nothing more or less than the creator of all physical illnesses that emerge spontaneously from within; and to know him fully is organic medicine, illnesses that appear spontaneously from within the human being come not through outer injuries, not from the human soul, they come from this being. He is the creator of all illnesses that emerge spontaneously from within; he is the creator of all organic illnesses.

And a brother of his, who is not composed Ahrimanically but Luciferically, is the creator of all neurasthenic and neurotic illnesses, all the illnesses that are not really illnesses but only nervous illnesses, hysterical illnesses as they are described.

Thus medicine must become spiritual in two directions. The demand for this is shown by the intrusion of views such as those of psychoanalysis and the like, where one keeps house with spiritual entities, as it were, but with inadequate means of knowledge so that one can do nothing at all with the phenomena that will intrude more and more into human life. For certain things need to happen, things that may even be harmful in a certain direction, because the human being must be exposed to what is harmful in order to overcome it and thereby gain strength.
.. this double is really the creator of all illnesses that have an organic foundation that are not merely functional. In order to understand this fully, however, one must know a great deal more .. for example, that our entire earth is not the dead product that mineralogy or geology thinks it to be, but it is a living being.
...
From this you will see further that one of the most important tasks of the future will be to foster again something that has been interrupted: geographic medicine, medical geography. With Paracelsus it was torn away from the ancient atavistic wisdom. Since then it has hardly been nurtured because of materialistic views. It must take its place again, and many things must become known again if we are to come to know the connection of the illness-producing being in man with earthly geography, with all the fusions, with all the outward radiations that emerge from the earth in the various regions. It is very important for the human being to become acquainted with these things, for his life depends on it. In a very definite way he is inserted into this earthly existence by this double, and this double has his dwelling place within, within the human being himself.
This has become so infinitely important only in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch and will become especially important to human beings in the very near future.

1917-11-17-GA266/3

In the future, all human beings will constantly behold death beside them and experience death within themselves. Melancholy will be the basic mood of the soul, and suicide will increase in a frightening manner.

1922-12-27-GA348

influence, hay fever, mental illness

1922-12-30-GA348

1923-01-20-GA348

diphteria and influenza

1923-01-27-GA348

jaundice, smallpox, rabies

1923-02-03-GA348

haemophilia

1924-06-26-GA317

[example of illness]
Let us now imagine, we have such a person before us in childhood. There will be a constant effort on the part of the child to come into the physical and into the etheric body, and then again, he will experience a resistance, he will be pushed back. It may very well be that owing to the predetermined conditions some of the organs are not in order.
Imagine you have here physical body and etheric body. The astral body and I want to come in. And they do come in, everywhere, but here they do not enter in a proper and orderly manner. They have to make a special effort. Every time, they want, let us say, to penetrate liver and stomach, the astral body and I have to make an effort.
And now this effort works itself out—regulates itself, as it were, in a curious way. A kind of rhythm is set up, an abnormal rhythm. At one moment the I strengthens itself, then it become feeble again.
So that we find in the child this alternation—first, a strong liver-stomach feeling, and then, before this has come to consciousness, a weakened liver-stomach feeling. The child oscillates continually between the two.
And the consequence is, he has not, as it were, time to make use of his body in the so-called normal way. For he could make use of the body only if this rhythm were not present and astral body and I were able to take possession of the several organs quietly.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

Rudolf Treichler (1909-1994)
- Soulways: Development, Crises, and Illnesses of the Soul: The Developing Soul-Life Phases, Thresholds and Biography (1990 in EN, in FR 2006 as
- 'Troubles Psychiques Au Cours De La Vie', original in DE 1981 as ''Die Entwicklung der Seele im Lebenslauf')
- Seelische Entwicklung und Sucht (1988)
- Vom Wesen der Nervenkrankheiten (1956)
- Vom Wesen der Epilepsie (1962, 1991)
- Vom Wesen der Hysterie (1964)
- 'Der schizophrene Prozess : Beiträge zu einer erweiterten Pathologie und Therapie' (1967, 1981; in FR 1995 as 'Dynamique De La Schizophrenie. Pour Une Psychiatrie Differente')
Norbert Glas:
- Adolescence and Diseases of Puberty (1945)
- How to look at illness (1951)
- Geistige Urgründe körperlicher Krankheiten: Dargestellt am Leben berühmter Persönlichkeiten (1986)
Otto Julius Hartmann
- 'Sünde, Krankheit und Heilung' (1953), later as 'Schicksal, Krankheit und Heilung' (1972)
- 'Zivilisationsschäden machen uns krank' (1958)
28th Medical Professions Conference: "Illness and Healing in the Light of the Metamorphosis Theory" (04.06.1982 - 06.06.1982; o.a. with Walther Buehler,Wolfgang Schad)
Leendert F.C. Mees: 'Krankheit als Segen. Heilung als Aufgabe.' (1984)
Rita Leroi (1913-1988): 'Illness and healing in the context of cosmic evolution' (1988)
Klaus Raschen: 'Krankheit und Ekstase : dargestellt am Leben der Teresa von Avila : Beitrag zu einer Zeiterscheinung : eine pastoralmedizinische Studie' (1992)
Boris Krause: 'Das Ich und sein Spiegel - Seelische Erkrankungen aus anthroposophischer Sicht' (2021)
Judith von Halle: 'Illness and healing and the mystery language of the gospels' (2007, original in DE: 'Von Krankheiten und Heilungen und von der Mysteriensprache in den Evangelien')