Today’s mainstream medicine continues to work with limited understanding and healing methods that will have to be transcended if true progress is to be made in the education and healing of human individuals.
Twenty-first century medicine must expand its worldview to encompass the whole human being (spirit, soul and body) and her or his whole environment (cosmic, social and terrestrial). This will lead to more effective scientific healing that treats causes as well as symptoms in those suffering spiritually, mentally, emotionally and/or physically.
“What can a purely material science know about Spirit or about God,” Dr. med. Franz Hartmann (1838-1912), a German doctor and Theosophist, asks in the excerpt below:
<<…nor would we expect to be believed if we were to put forward our testimony to strengthen a doctrine rejected by modern scientific authorities who have never seen anything but what can be seen by means of the external senses.
We do not desire to dispute with those who are incapable of seeing in man more than an intellectual animal, who are extremely skeptical in regard to the existence of an invisib1e world within the visible one, but who are vain and credulous enough to believe that nothing can possibly exist of whose existence they know nothing; and that if anything spiritual or divine were to exist, in spite of their assertions to the contrary, they would have found it out long ago.
We have no desire to quarrel with the learned about such matters: because the existence of the Unseen cannot be proved so long as it is invisible for them, and even the existence of the seen remains a mere matter of opinion and speculation for those who are blind.
What can a purely material science know about Spirit or about God? What can a science which deals merely with the details of the external phenomena of life know about the fundamental, invisible principles which are the external causes of the universal manifestations of life?>>
There are realities beyond the physical plane that have a direct bearing on human health and well-being. These can be investigated to create more comprehensive diagnostic techniques and effective therapies.
Ancient Medical Systems
Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional European and other time-honored medical systems were originally developed by sages, saints and healers using clairvoyant (extra-sensory) perception to gain knowledge of the subtle aspects of the whole human being and of his or her spiritual, mental and psychic environments. The validity of their insights has been proved by thousands of years of successful medical practice, today termed “experiential medicine” in contradistinction to materialistic science’s “evidence-based medicine”. Both have their place in a holistic approach to medicine.
However, the body, soul and spirit of the whole human being has continued to evolve over generations, in response to changing telluric, social and cosmic environments. Thus, the patient of today differs in some aspects from the patient of 10, 100, 1,000 or 10,000 years ago. The best of these traditional medical systems have continued to grow and evolve as living traditions in response to these changes.
Anthroposophic Medicine
In the early 20th century, Dr. phil. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of Anthroposophy (1912) and co-founder with Dr. med. Ita Wegman of Anthroposophic Medicine (1920), advocated a spiritualization of what had become mainstream science and medicine in the West.
This could be achieved through clairvoyant (extra-sensory) investigation. One was no longer to be dependent on ancient traditions, aspects of which might no longer be valid, but instead would be pursuing spiritual research using higher cognitive faculties in the present.
Such clairvoyant research should be conducted in order to arrive at a deepened and broadened knowledge of the human being and her or his environment based on contemporary realities. The resultant discoveries would then form the basis with which to revolutionize medical practice.
Of course, this is an ambitious goal. It requires a person either to be born with higher cognitive faculties, which enable a person to access knowledge beyond the reach of the five senses and concrete mind, or to acquire them over time through spiritual striving and the appropriate exercises. Nevertheless, this objective should provide direction to our present-day strivings to move beyond the limitations of a materialistic worldview in order to greatly improve medical practice and deliver better patient care of the whole human being in the future.
Dr. phil. Rudolf Steiner also left a substantial published legacy of original spiritual-scientific research for the interested scientific and medical investigator to explore. This legacy can serve as a point of departure for the open-minded, compassionate investigator’s own inquiries of the greater Reality. Such explorations will only serve to enrich today’s scientific and medical research and practice.
Conclusion
No medicine is complete without spiritual wisdom with its practical knowledge about higher Spiritual Powers that create and sustain the human spirit, soul and body. In traditional Eastern and Western medicine, as well as in Anthroposophic medicine, humankind is understood to be the intermediary between Heaven and Earth. Humanity receives, digests and assimilates forces and substances from the Cosmos, human society, and the Earth.
19th and 20th century materialistic science and medicine exhaustively investigated the physical plane and the physical body, the world of effects, using the five senses and the intellect. However, for a truly holistic, integrative medicine to evolve in the 21st century, the time is overdue for our scientific and medical communities to redirect their attention to investigate other planes/dimensions in which the life-force, soul and spirit aspects of the whole human being exist.
Why? Because these have a direct bearing on a person’s physical health, psychological well-being and overall ability to successfully meet the rigors of daily living.
Joseph Michael Contrada
Heilpraxis Contrada | Healing Arts Contrada
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Revised February 2022 and May 2024