Anthroposophy and Science: An Introduction

Heusser P. Anthroposophy and Science: An Introduction. 1st German ed. 2011; 1st English ed. 2016. Translated by Hepburn L. New York, NY: Peter Lang; 2016. ISBN: 9783631672242. Hardcover, 368 pp. $98.25. Available from: https://www.peterlang.com . [1] “Man has attained the present stage of his life of feeling, his life of will, his intelligence, nay even his form, because higher spiritual Beings in the cosmos have also been at work in earth-existence. We have spoken of these Beings as the ‘Thrones,’ the ‘Spirits of Wisdom,’ the ‘Spirits of Movement,’ the ‘Spirits of Form,’ the ‘Spirits of Personality,’ and so forth.”–Rudolf Steiner [2] Though most do not have the depth of spirit understanding which Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) bequeathed the world, some, like the late American novelist, Tom Robbins, perhaps, did. When asked if his writings were meant to be “funny or serious” he answered: “...I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is fallacy.”–Tom Robbins (1932–2025) Anthroposophy and Science: An Introduction is an attempt to explain, via a profoundly intellectual posture, the role which spirituality plays in all the various realms of science. The author does so by elucidating, in eight chapters, how an awareness of “the spirit” connects and interacts with materialism, especially materialistic science. These eight are, Introduction; Epistemology: knowledge and truth; Science and ontological idealism in physics and chemistry; Ontological idealism in biology; Neurobiology, psychology and philosophy of mind: the reality of the soul and spirit; From anthropology to anthroposophy; Anthroposophy as an empirical spiritual science; and Anthroposophical spiritual science and natural scientific medicine. Each of these chapters contains numerous subchapters. In this article, I include a mention of several other references and offer one by Steiner himself, Disease, Karma and Healing . This book is a thorough academic treatment of the scientific basis of anthroposophy (also known as “spiritual science”) and anthroposophical medicine within the historical context of academic science as it debates and analyzes the basic precepts of physics, chemistry, genetics, morphogenesis, biology, neurobiology, and psychology. It also does so with an emphasis on the problems of life, mind-body interactions, and free will. The result is a nonreductionist tableau, which recognizes the body, life, soul, and spirit as mutually dependent and equally real entities. The justification for this tableau is put forth in relation to the history and methodology of science as well as evidence-based medicine. [3] Trying to make sense of this requires one to adopt an anthroposophical vocabulary. Anthroposophy, also known as “spiritual science,” views the human being as consisting of four aspects or members—an “I” (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Ego), the astral, the etheric, and finally the physical body. The “I” is the highest member of our being and is connected or linked, much like a thread, to its other half existing in the spirit world (if you look upon this negatively or with doubt perhaps there is no need to read on as within the entire topic of anthroposophy the spiritual is of paramount importance). This “I” is the driver or organizer of the human being's entelechy. The next aspect of the human being's sheath or energies is the astral (astral body), which consists of our emotional life, that is, passions, et cetera. This aspect is also shared by the animal kingdom as there is increasing evidence that animals have an emotional life and thus an astral component. Next comes the etheric body which is no less important and consists of, for want of a better term, chi or the dynamic force which animates us and is the primary energy of the plant world. It is the realm of growth which is so potently present and characteristic of plants. We do know that different plants have varying capacities for growth and regeneration while the ability of animals is less and man still less. That energy in anthroposophy is referred to as the etheric body or force. Plants do not as yet have the astral aspect. Although by examining the Venus flytrap (several other examples could be cited), one sees a dim glimmer of this aspect. The fourth member, that of the body, is shared by all as dense materiality is shared throughout all the kingdoms of nature. In health these energetic forces are in balance. However, when imbalances occur we become ill. These imbalances are not just experienced as physical symptoms but affect the astral and etheric realms, too. In fact, all three are mutually interactive. For example, we all know that a fall causing a debilitating fracture can cause an emotional response—depression, perhaps. And likewise, emotional pain can cause physical symptoms. Man and the animals also possess three other energetic aspects—nerve/sense, circulation, and metabolic, each associated with thinking, feeling, and willing, respectively. These three are present throughout the person but are concentrated in the nervous system, the rhythmic system, and the movement system. Health, too, is maintained when these aspects are in balance. Let us take, as a simple example, migraine. Though migraines can have various origins, if one of the above components is imbalanced say, in the digestive (the metabolic sphere) caused by improper food combining or other reasons, those metabolic energies may impinge upon the head region or nerve/sense realm causing a headache. The anthroposophic doctor and patient, during the consultation, will discuss proper nutrition and in addition may prescribe medicaments. This example is very simplistic and only serves to whet the appetite. You will get better and more complete explanations in the books by Drs. Evans and Bott. Read one or both before tackling the detailed, deeper work of Husemann and Wolff and later of Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner was an initiate as well as being profoundly gifted with clairvoyant gifts. He used those powers to read or intuitively feel the Akashic Record, which you may be familiar with. In so doing, Steiner was able to learn, become aware of much of the spirit-world's wisdom. He brought much of that knowledge to bear in his teachings and did so to the medical community in the early 1920s when he presented numerous medical lectures to doctors and medical students who were seeking a new medicine, new ways of healing. [4] This revitalization of medicine takes into account the spiritual aspects of the human being. In those often lengthy lectures, Steiner explained the entelechy of man, offering esoteric and occult (hidden) explanations for how diseases come about as well as presenting novel ideas on how to create more effective therapies, treatments, and medications. Out of this latter arose the anthroposophic research and manufacturing concerns of Weleda and Wala. Let it be stated that Steiner was not attempting to usurp the dominant medical model but to supplement it in uniquely profound ways. Other aspects, such as karma and reincarnation, play roles in the health (and destiny) of the human being, but to address those subjects at this juncture would be a bit burdensome and perhaps counterproductive. Late in the book, Peter Heusser directs the reader's attention more specifically to anthroposophy, exploring its philosophical roots. He devotes subchapter 6.2 to Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866) and, in 6.3, to Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796–1879) who outlined initial studies and definitions of anthroposophy. To get a flavor for Heusser's prose and what you can expect, consider this: “While Troxler classifies the sciences of ordinary cognition as “anthropology” as early as 1828 he called the necessary higher science “anthroposophy.” On the basis of the psychological and scientific observations of the life of the soul available at the time, I. H. Fichte (1796-1879) concluded in his Anthropologie that the human soul is a self-contained entity which needs the body to develop ordinary consciousness, but before awakening to consciousness, it is unconsciously active in the building up of its body. Also, for the soul, an existence free of the body which is not empirically accessible to scientific anthropology can in principle be assumed before birth and after death. In this connection he therefore demanded that anthropology be expanded into an anthroposophy in order to extend human cognition to the higher realms of human existence and reality.”–p. 249 As you can see, the reading can become dense and heady. In 7.2 Heusser delves into Rudolf Steiner's empirical spiritual science, otherwise known as anthroposophy. Finally, in Chapter 8, Heusser begins a discussion of spiritual man and how it relates to and interacts with the entelechy of the human being in health and illness. There are six subchapters in the last chapter—The fourfold image of man as a basis for medical anthropology, nosology and therapy; Scientific examination of anthroposophical concepts and medical rationale; Anthroposophical medicine and modern scientific medical research; Concerning the extension of medical anthropology through anthroposophy; The status of clinical scientific research in anthroposophical medicine; and a