Rudolf Steiner was a anthroposophical philosopher who lived during the turn of the 21st century, and despite the distance of time, his ideas still have purpose and meaning for our current state of health care. He was an unconventional man who strove to understand the multi-faceted nature of human beings, societal structures, and the environment from which we interacted and in turn evolved. Surprisingly, we are still struggling for an understanding of the elements of human nature today, using a similar dialogue that was spoken back when he was an observer for our medical world.
I was introduced to Steiner and his published books through, Dr. Christopher Metro, a Portland naturopathic physician, who wanted to stress to me the importance of treating the whole patient. Dr. Metro explained that physical medicine, regardless of the therapies involved (natural or conventional) remains a limited perspective, mired within the material or physical way of understanding our world and the conditions of dis-ease. Truly assessing a situation requires a greater knowledge, encompassing the nonphysical playing fields in addition to the traditional physical aspects of medicine, like biology and physiology. Moreover, using a holistic perspective for treating dis-ease can adequately and easily be obtained for a patient through training in the spiritual, emotional, and energetic realms.
This quote by Dr. Steiner truly drives that point home, thought that you’d enjoy a small blast from the past:
“Some three thousand years ago, during the flowering of the most ancient Greek culture, there existed schools that were very different from those of today. The basis of these ancient schools consisted in the belief that man first of all was to develop new faculties in his soul before he could become capable of attaining to true knowledge concerning mankind.
“Now it was just because, in these ancient times, the more primitive soul-faculties did not incline towards the dreamy and visionary, that it was possible to experience, in the so-called mysteries, the spiritual foundations from which all forms of learning arose.
“This state of things came to an end more or less contemporaneously with the founding of our Universities– during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Since that time we learn only in a rationalistic way. Rationalism leads on the one hand to keen logic, and on the other hand to pure materialism.
“During the course of the last few centuries a vast store of external knowledge has been accumulated in the domain of biology, physiology, and other branches of research which are introductory to the study of medicine; indeed an amazing mass of observation, out of which an almost immeasurable amount may yet be obtained!
“But during these centuries all knowledge connected with man, which could only be gained with spiritual vision, sank completely out of sight.
“It has therefore become actually impossible to investigate the true nature of health and disease.
“In order to emphasize this remark, I may mention that even at the present time (according to the descriptions given in my books) it is possible so to raise the faculties of the soul that the spiritual nature of man may be clearly distinguished from the physical. This spiritual part of man is, for the spiritual observer, just as visible as the physical part is for the man who observes with his outer sense; with this difference, however, that our ordinary senses have been and are incorporated into our bodily organism without our cooperation, where as we must ourselves develop the organs of spiritual insight.”
–Rudolf Steiner — London 1924.
