Rudolf Steiner - Medicine - An Introductory Reader

Date:   7/29/2012 3:52:12 AM ( 12 y ago)

Just starting a new (cross country) book study on a subject that I have been waiting for the right timing and the right connection to share the study with.

The Introduction page 6: "... if you ask what has expelled the last vestige of those instincts which link us to the whole of nature, the reply must be: the education we receive at school and university - for this, and everything related to it, is eminently suited to uproot man's interconnection with the totality of nature."

The truth of this (that is self-evident to me) has been the reason that from about the age of thirteen I began developing a desire to leave the big city (where I was being raised) and live where I can be surrounded by nature. Although I did eventually leave the city I am still aspiring to living with a closer connection with nature. I envision having that with a Biodynamic farm!: http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1881780

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Update - August 1, 2012:

The Introduction of this book ends with "There is a great deal of dissatisfaction in medicine today, and this may partly be due to the prevailing superficial view of the human being as a creature composed more or less entirely of complex biochemistry. Deep down most doctors sense that there is a great deal more to human nature. Steiner has given us a path, albeit a difficult one, for discovering deeper aspects of the human being, upon which a true art of healing can be based."

The need for "a true art of healing" has clearly been growing in my awareness for many years, starting when I first listened to TOMMY by the WHO (probably very shortly after it was released on 23 May 1969 - about forty-three years ago). "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me!"

There is definitely a healing stream running through my life! I have done a tremendous amount of healing regarding my own inner "Tommy". In fact I wrote a paper on this about twenty-five years ago called T.O.M.M.Y - the Transformation Of My Mythological Youth. A couple days ago I started thinking that I might rewrite that from my present time perspective which is blessed with even more healing than when I originally wrote the paper. In fact, some of my most important healing work has only recently occurred in the last four years! (BTW, TOMMY was rated as one of the top 10 albums that changed the world:
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage3.htm#The)


The sense that "most doctors" have "that there is a great deal more to human nature" is one that I believe needs to be seen, felt and touched in ways that validate that sense. Can Anthroposophical Medicine (AM) meet that need? Is it the task of AM to extend that validation to doctors? Can the task be taken up by those who work with German New Medicine (GNM)?

I believe there is great common ground between AM and GNM and that they can compliment one another (and surely if we consider that AM intends to compliment Western medicine). One commonality with both the AM and GNM paradigms is that they both require the patient to learn about the meaning of their healing journey. I personally believe that this is potentially a journey of enlightenment. Through my own enlightening, healing, journey of transformation I've realized the pervasiveness of conditioning that formed and perpetuates: "the prevailing superficial view of the human being as a creature composed more or less entirely of complex biochemistry".

This view of the human being is well depicted in the film "The Matrix". It is a view that supports the various systems in the world that feed on and off the human being. Western medicine is one of those systems. Yet those who work for that system are probably not anxious to acknowledge the truth of this; especially if their livelihood is dependent in it. That is why I say the doctors who have a sense that there is more to the human being (than what the Matrix may present) need to be acknowledged and possibly supported to nurturing that sense. IMO, Anthroposophical Medicine could offer that support. And so can German New Medicine! That is why I have offered GNM introductions to about a dozen practitioners (including M.D.s) over the past year or so. Maybe they will be more receptive after the financial system crashes.

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August 2 -

Chapter 2. - The Science of Knowing
Begins with he necessity for developing "an inner, imaginative and intuitive path of knowledge" to "grasp an archetype". "Thinking is not excluded from this process, but arises out of it." This path allows for a "unifying force which always posits a whole and seeks to link and connect."

This is the path that I strive to take in my work with others. I imagine that I will be developing my abilities in this way for the rest of my life. In the meanwhile I use Human Design as a tool to support my intuition. I had an experience of this the other day in conversation with a friend who called me to "check-in". I find that when I bring up people's Human Design charts I am intuitively drawn to "linking" what the individual is presenting to me with a Center, a Definition, a Gate, etc. that then often points to an archetype which I am willing to share with that individual if they will allow it to go to that extent. Dane Rudhyar's - "An Astrological Mandala" has been most helpful for me in identifying the archetype.

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August 17, 2012 -

Chapter 3 - The Mission of Reverence:

"... a doctor can only diagnose and prescribe in a beneficial way based on these same faculties of intuition, reverence and love, all of which give rise to true knowledge."

Imagine all doctor-patient relationships based on this. Would there still be iatrogenic shock conflicts?:
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1940961

August 20, p. 46 "... the courage and honesty required to find the right way of meeting another human being."

This is one of those lines that suddenly brings truth into my conscious awareness; one that I feel convicted of yet one that I was not able to articulate so succinctly. "The right way of meeting another human being" is the only way that I want to meet others. A most recent experience in this regards has underscored this for me. I have certain conviction that judgement does not allow me to meet another in the right way. I am striving to "judge not". I have life-long conditioning that supports the judgement and that internal programming requires a lot of compassion, self-empathy on my part. Fortunately I am able to give that to myself!

I offer up all the things that I have formed in all my thoughts (including judgements that impact my present time experience) to the Holy Spirit.

Steiner: "... the 'I' or ego gains increasing independence and strength by overcoming certain soul qualities, such as anger, and by cultivating others, such as the sense of truth. After that, the self-education of the ego comes to an end and its education through reverence begins. Anger is to be overcome and discarded; a sense of truth is to permeate the ego; reverence is to flow from the ego towards the object of which knowledge is sought."

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August 31, 2012 -

Continuing Chapter 3
"There is nothing in the world more delightful, nothing more fascinating, than the experience of truth."

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September 30th -

Chapter four on "The Four Temperaments ends with:
"All variety, beauty, and all the richness of life are possible only through the temperaments ..."

Yeah,I have a household full of mixed temperaments and there is never ever a dull moment here! ; - )

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October 8th, 2012 -

Chapter five:
The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical

"This, as Steiner now explains, is the bridge across the Cartesian, mind-body divide."

 

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