Meditative contemplations and instructions for deepening
the art of healing were given in this course for
medical students and young physicians. The course
consists of eight lectures given at Christmas, 1923,
and five lectures given at Easter, 1924. For Rudolf
Steiner, it was to be a course on the humanizing of
medicine. As such it is completely different in content
and spirit from all other lectures on medicine.
Nowhere else does Rudolf Steiner give the kind and
amount of meditative material to deepen a professional
activity as he does in this course. Also included are
“The Bridge Lectures,” three lectures
given Dec. 17–19, 1920, which were recommended
By Rudolf Steiner as preparation for this course.
The Course for Young Doctors contains Bn/GA 316, entitled:
Meditative Contemplation and Guidance for Deepening the Art of Healing
(published in German as:
Meditative Betrachtungen und Anleitungen zur Vertiefung der Heilkunst.
Vortraege fuer Aertz und Medizinstudierende), and three lectures from
Bn/GA 202, entitled:
The Bridge between Cosmic Spirituality and the Physical Constitution
of Humans — the “Bridge” lectures. The translator is unknown; edited by Gerald F. Karnow, M.D.
|
Introduction |
|
| Christmas Course |
|
|
Lecture I |
January 2, 2024 |
|
Illusion of solidly contained image of the human being. The physically
contoured man. The fluid man into which the etheric body works; the
air man in which the astral body works. The warmth man which permeates
the human organization. The “I” works upon
the latter, while the warmth man works upon the remaining organization,
then the “I” indirectly. This enables a true insight into
the relation of the soul and body since the soul happenings work upon
the warmth ether and through it into the organs. The possibility for
illness lies within the human organization. The possibility for
healing lies in nature processes which can take over processes in
the human being: etheric body, astral body, ego, calling upon the
higher members of being to bring about healing. Natural science must
examine the living cosmic aspects of nature, e.g., formic acid,
ripening of figs and honey production. Necessity to develop a sense
for nature, also in microscopy. Consideration must be taken of the
non-relativity of magnifications. A view to the true nature of
the beehive. |
|
Lecture II |
January 3, 2024 |
|
Characteristics of members of being. Ego and earth
form. Ego and death form. Physical organism and nutrition. Relation
of etheric body and astral body to illness predisposition.
Precondition for a conscious soul life. The nature of feeling.
The development of illness. Inflammation and neoplasia. Illness and
soul life. Liver as sense organ for the substances of the outer
world. Heart, a sense organ for the inner world. The organs as an
essential wholeness. Evaluation of foodstuffs out of the world
connections with the human organism. |
|
Lecture III |
January 4, 2024 |
|
Earth substance forces and peripheral substance forces are balanced
out in the different organ systems. Contemplation of the head from this
point of view; its weightlessness and static rest. Cosmos and earthly
forces in the head and the remaining skeleton. The significance of
calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. Substances as cosmic
formative processes and the relation of the cosmic beingness to
substances. Consideration of the forces which overcome the lead
process. The significance of the magnesium process. Rhythmic
periods in which the process has a different significance. Antimony
and the metamorphosis of the carbon process examined according
to cosmic and etheric formative processes in the course of time. |
|
Lecture IV |
January 5, 2024 |
|
Exoteric knowledge and its acquisition as basis for
the esoteric part of the course. Formation of the human being:
etheric body and its relation to the germ which develops out of
inheritance, its relation to the astral body during the time
immediately after birth; predisposition for knowledge. The
significance of the inner path and deepening for the physician
who wants to heal. The cultivation of soul forces through rhythmic
repetition of knowledge. Such knowledge is shown in the example of
experiencing the plant; esoteric and exoteric knowledge are brought
into their true connection. |
|
Lecture V |
January 6, 2024 |
|
About the change which needs to arise within the Anthroposophical
movement: “The esoteric path is either a difficult one, or it
is none.” Further description of cosmic forces on the basis of
the relation of the plant being to the human organism, especially the
head. The necessity of experiencing this knowledge. The connection of
this knowledge to inner moral impulses. Description of meditative
processes. The will to deepen medical studies esoterically as has
hitherto only happened in two areas: general Anthroposophy and
Eurythmy and the art of recitation. Description of the institution of
the Medical Section. |
|
Lecture VI |
January 7, 2024 |
|
Knowledge through thought: bony system through
imagination: fluid man — muscle system. Knowledge through
inspiration: inner organs. Knowledge through intuition: warmth
man, the activity of the organs. The two kinds of warmth. Air and
light states. Metamorphosis of light. The watery united with Chemism.
Earth and life. Medical thought knowledge and therapeutic
element. |
|
Lecture VII |
January 8, 2024 |
|
Answering a question about healing magnetism.
Question concerning the relation of the heart to the uterus. Question
concerning the influence of precious stones on different
organs. Question concerning the significance of the decay of
the corpse for the deceased. Question concerning the
significance of autopsy in relation to the time of death.
Question concerning the significance of the community for the healing
force of the physician. Question concerning iris diagnosis,
graphology, etc. Concerning healing and knowledge of remedies.
Concerning the book Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
and its significance for the human being.
Imagination and the life of the muscle; inspiration and the life of
the inner organs; sketch of the necessary course of study for a
spiritually appropriate medicine. The nature of illness for the
physician filled with the will-to-heal. |
|
Lecture VIII |
January 9, 2024 |
|
Orientation of the physician according to karma; the
will for karma and the will-to-heal. Introduction to a contemplation
of the human organism leading to healing as a result of cosmic
forces, using as an example Saturn and Moon forces. Indication for
meditative deepening. |
| Easter Course |
|
|
Lecture I |
April 21, 2024 |
|
Participants are asked for questions concerning the
difficulties which have resulted in orienting the physician
towards an esoteric path of schooling. Emancipation of the Western
esoteric path from the outer cosmos. Instruction for meditation; the
nature of meditation. The incarnation process, development of a
human body suitable for the earth. Origin of the stream of heredity.
Nature of scarlet fever and measles. Significance of child's
nutrition and mother's milk. Significance of direct perception
for medical knowledge; examples of the same. Acquisition of maturity.
The seven-year periods as new impulses. The working of cosmic
formative forces. Meditation of the plant being. |
|
Lecture II |
April 22, 2024 |
|
Concerning the right meditation and the profession
of the physician. Knowledge of illness as knowledge of healing.
Knowledge of healing and the will-to-heal. The recognition of the
etheric out of the sculptural. Recognition of the astral out of the
musical. The pioneering task for a new medical study of the physician
newly oriented out of Anthroposophy. Contemplation of the primary
cause of illness in the patient's course of life. Meditation. |
|
Lecture III |
April 23, 2024 |
|
Introduction to the meditation given in the second
lecture: formative structuring, human formation out of cosmic forces.
Moon. Ensouling of the human being: cosmic Sun's working in the
periphery. Spiritualization of the human being through the
breakdown forces of Saturn. The cosmic force nature of the metals.
The moral as a force streaming in from the cosmos. Spiritual truths
must be experienced meditatively again and again. Concerning
the karmic relations of the spirit-seeking souls born at the turn of
the century. |
|
Lecture IV |
April 24, 2024 |
|
The development of medical points of view of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries considered regarding the karmic relations.
Christianity and Arabism. Instruction for a healer meditation: the
cosmic trinity — Saturn, Sun, Moon — working in the
healthy and the ill human being. Directions for noticing the karmic
relations in the ill: will of the healer, Christianization of
medicine by becoming conscious of the cosmic element in human beings
in health and illness. Letting the heart think along: the staff
of Mercury. The physician should work so that karma can work itself
out in our culture. |
|
Lecture V |
April 25, 2024 |
|
Concerning the nature of the members of being and
their mutual relations. General causes of becoming ill.
Comprehension for the mode of working of certain remedies.
Different relations in the physical and the mental illnesses.
Temperaments. Instructions for a meditation to acquire imaginative
conscousness. The same for acquiring inspiration consciousness.
Feeling in knowing, feeling in knowledge. Concretizing the
Youth Movement with the help of a striving medicine. The slight
healing of heredity forces in education. Relation of physician to
patient. Appeal for an inner establishment of connection to the
Goetheanum which has placed itself as center a definite task. |
| Appendix |
|
|
First Circular Letter |
March 11, 2024 |
|
Evening Gathering |
April 24, 2024 |
|
Relation of fluid to solid in the formation of the
organic. Structuring of images from expansion (cosmic working) and
infolding (earthly working). The therapeutically significant phantom
of the organs in the fluid man. The plastic principle for the
comprehension of the fluid, musical principle for the comprehension
of the airy. Listening to oneself in speaking: study of the ego
organization. |
| I. |
Soul and Spirit in the Human Physical Constitution |
December 17, 2023 |
|
The physical organism of the human being is considered today to consist
of more or less solid-fluid substances; but as well as the solid,
physical body, the human has as definite organisms, a fluid body, an
air body and a warmth body. The connections of these organisms with
the members of the whole being and with the different Ethers. Thought
and Tone; Ego and circulating Blood. The sleeping state. Relation to
the universal Spirituality. Imagination, Inspiration,
Intuition. The circumscribed view of the human organism
prevailing today is unable to build any bridge between the
physical body and the soul and spirit. |
| II. |
The Moral as the Source of World-Creative Power |
December 18, 2023 |
|
Recapitulation of previous lecture. Connection of
the moral world-order with the physical world-order. The moral
world-order has no place in the natural-scientific thinking of today.
The positive effect of moral ideals and ideas and the negative effect
of theoretical ideas on the four organisms. The materialistic
conception of the imperishability of matter and energy. Matter and
energy die away to nullity but moral thinking imbues life into
substance and will. The natural world dies away in the human; in the
realm of the moral a new natural world comes into being; thus are the
moral order and the natural order connected. Absence of
spirituality in the modern picture of the world which is based
on the Copernican system. Kepler and Newton. We need a spiritual view
of the universe. The sun is not a globe of burning gas but the
reflection of a spiritual reality revealed in the physical. The
moral power developed by the human rays out and is reflected as the
spiritual Sun. Julian the Apostate. The connection of the spiritual
Sun with the physical sun is the Christ-Secret. |
| III. |
The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World Happenings |
December 19, 2023 |
|
The human as a being of Thinking, Action and Feeling. The connection of
the life of thought with the will. Pure thinking: irradiation of the
life of thought by will. This leads to Freedom. Irradiation of
the life of will by thoughts leads to Love. The meaning of the
ancient expressions: Semblance, Power, Wisdom. To speak of the
imperishability of matter and energy annuls Love. The
significance of Freedom and Love in world happenings. |
