 "With pneumonia, the cause is always in the astral body; pneumonia can occur in no other way.' — Rudolf Steiner STEINER’S QUACKERY: The Dangers of “Anthroposophical Medicine” A slightly different version of this essay is accessible at http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/steiner.html Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian-German mystic and self-proclaimed clairvoyant who founded the religion known as Anthroposophy. In addition to his acute interest in spiritualism, Steiner also turned his attention to many earthly matters. One was education: Steiner founded the Waldorf school movement, which now includes over 800 schools. Another area of interest for Steiner was medicine. Today practitioners of “Anthroposophical medicine” can be found in many communities in North America, Europe, and elsewhere. The underlying principle of Anthroposophical medicine is that everything physical is infused with, and manifests, spirit. The causes of illness, then, are not primarily physical but instead reflect spiritual conditions. For human beings, good health is achieved when the physical organism is properly aligned with the nonphysical bodies that, Steiner taught, manifest during a human’s lifetime: the “etheric body” (a set of life forces), the “astral body” (higher soul forces), and the “I” (a spark of divine selfhood or ego that separates true humans from animals and subhumans). [1] Bad health, on the other hand, often reflects the working out of one’s karmic destiny. [2] If one enters this world carrying spiritual impurities resulting from sins or errors committed in previous lives, disease can serve as a rite of passage, purging evils from one’s bodily/spiritual system. Thus, medical intervention is often a bad idea: A doctor who cures a patient with drugs, etc., may be blocking the patient’s karmic self-healing process. One corollary of Steiner’s medical doctrines is that Anthroposophical doctors generally avoid giving inoculations. A professed believer in reincarnation, Steiner taught that a disease may be part of a patient's “karma.” Interfering with the illness would be unwise because treating only the physical body would require the patient to compensate in a future life. Addressing a group of doctors, Steiner said “If we destroy the susceptibility to smallpox, we are concentrating only on the external side of karmic activity.” [3] On other occasions, Steiner was even more outspoken (and bizarre). He said that black magicians and other evildoers will create medicines that will deaden people to all things spiritual: “Endeavors to achieve this will be made by bringing out remedies to be administered by inoculation ... only these inoculations will influence the human body in a way that will make it refuse to give a home to the spiritual inclinations of the soul.” [4] Although they are loath to inoculate or to interfere with karmic destiny, Anthroposophical doctors do not completely refrain from giving some forms of real treatment. They are genuine MDs, having gone through conventional medical schools. After receiving their licenses, they may employ conventional treatments on occasion, but they will also resort to alternative therapies when they deem these best. A Web site devoted to promoting Steiner posts this statement: “So anthroposophical doctors reject nothing in the toolbox of conventional medicine a priori. Every option is considered for its appropriateness in a specific instance. Antibiotics are used when necessary, but so are homeopathic remedies. Physical therapy is prescribed, but so is curative eurythmy (movement exercise to balance the forces within the body).” [5]  Herbal compounds and teas are often prescribed. For instance, a compound called Rescue Remedy may be used to treat injuries. The ingredients include star of Bethlehem (for shock), clematis (to counteract any tendency to lose consciousness), cherry plum (to maintain mental stability), impatiens (for tension), and rock rose (to prevent panic). [6] Even the most severe illnesses may be attacked with simple natural substances, although they are often prepared in special ways. For the treatment of cancer, Steiner recommended mistletoe therapy. [7] The efficacy, if any, of Anthroposophical remedies is contingent on Steiner’s antiscientific conception of the human anatomy. Steiner’s descriptions of various bodily organs and their functions differ markedly from those found in medical textbooks. The heart, for instance, is not a pump, Steiner declared: “[Science] sees the heart as a pump that pumps blood through the body. Now there is nothing more absurd than believing this, for the heart has nothing to do with pumping the blood.” [8] Blood circulates of its own accord, thanks to the vital force it embodies. Likewise, Steiner taught that the brain is not involved in cognition. [9] True cognition, for Steiner, is the exercise of paranormal powers made possible when individuals develop “organs of clairvoyance.” [10] Reportedly, Anthroposophical physicians do not conduct double-blind controlled experiments [11], so it is almost impossible to evaluate the success rates enjoyed by such physicians. All doctors, including conventional MDs, witness mysterious declines as well as mysterious recoveries. Presumably, believers in Anthroposophical medicine can relate tales of highly successful treatments. (Whether the cures in these cases resulted from the treatments, or chance, or some other cause, cannot be known.) Likewise, anecdotal evidence can be arrayed on the other side. (These reports must be treated with equal caution, of course.)  In an essay at the anti-Steiner Web site waldorfcritics.org, Robert Smith-Hald tells a harrowing tale of being raised by Anthroposophists. “They believe that sickness is the soul incarnating, and also that it has to do with karma. They don’t believe in inoculations, so I had all the child diseases going around, some twice.” Smith-Hald reports that he was constantly ill throughout his childhood and that the primary treatment he received consisted of “little white sugar pills called infludo, and ... buckets and buckets of horsetail [tea], and also chamomile tea.” Certain foods made him sick, so he was required to eat great quantities of these very foods. “[T]he feeling my parents had was that I should eat more of it, as I obviously needed to incarnate through the food. So I grew up being [force-fed] food that was making me sick.” As an adult, having broken away from Anthroposophy, Smith-Hald was examined by a conventional doctor who correctly diagnosed his wheat intolerance. He has been improving ever since. [12] At the same Web site, Sharon Lombard relates a similar story, but from a parent’s vantage point. Lombard enrolled her daughter in a Waldorf school. When the child became sick, an Anthroposophical doctor treated her: “The Anthroposophic doctor made a diagnosis: my child had lost the will to live. He announced one of the potential cures ... we were to give our daughter red, yellow, and orange crayons to color with! I looked at my husband in disbelief. When the doctor instructed us to make the sign of a flame out of Aurum cream over my child’s heart at bedtime, I was dumbfounded ... He told us to apply the gold cream from below the heart upwards, towards the sky....” The girl ultimately had to be hospitalized, after which conventional medicine produced a gradual cure. [13] As I implied above, such stories do not constitute scientific proof. But that is precisely the point. True, conventional medicine — basing its findings on careful research and proven facts — is still limited: It cannot explain the causes of some illnesses, and it offers no cures for some. But true medicine has an extremely potent weapon in its arsenal, something that no alternative medicines have: the scientific method. This is the best tool mankind possesses for discovering truth. It is responsible for the great strides that true, conventional medicine has made, and it will account for the greater strides to come.  APPENDIX Here is a sampling of additional comments Steiner made about medicine, health, and the human anatomy. My own comments are based on standard encyclopedias and medical texts such as THE MERCK MANUAL and THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS COMPLETE HOME MEDICAL GUIDE. ◊ “We must ask ourselves: In what constellation were we living when, in the nineties, the present influenza epidemic appeared in its benign form? In what cosmic constellation are we living at the present moment? By virtue of what cosmic rhythm does the influenza epidemic of the nineties appear in a more acute form today? [14] Consulting the stars to understand diseases is obviously fallacious — and dangerous for the patient, who needs real care, not astrological hokum. ◊ “In a healthy human organism, a kind of organic combustion must always be active when substances are being transformed [i.e., broken down, digested, etc.] ... Organic combustion occurs with every movement we make, including inner movements ... When the forces needed to restrain organic combustion are not present, either in the entire organism or in a single organ system, various forms of tuberculosis develop ... If we administer phosphorus, we support the ability to curb organic combustion processes.” [15] Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease, usually of the lungs. Combustion does not occur within the body — we “burn” calories only in a metaphoric sense. Phosphorus is a combustible poison — instead of “curb,” Steiner evidently means “enhance” or “support.” For “inner movements,” read “internal processes including mental activity.” Steiner would also include spiritual activity involving the body. ◊ Concerning “the internal structure of an organ such as the esophagus ... In the organ itself, the antimonizing force is at work in the human being. The human being is antimony if we exclude from consideration everything that is introduced from outside. The human being is antimony.” [16] The esophagus is the gullet, connecting the throat to the stomach. “Antimonizing” means producing antimony, a brittle element used in metallic alloys. “The human being is antimony” has no practical meaning — no real medical treatment can result from such a statement. ◊ “When a person becomes afflicted with shrunken kidneys, which can occur when the kidneys' activity is deficient, you can see an indentation here on the head ... You can see in every person who has kidney disease this indentation in the head. Beneath it lies the optic nerves. When the indentation occurs, the optic nerves become inactive ... the patient begins to see unclearly.” [17] The kidneys purify blood and excrete urine. Failing eyesight is not associated with kidney problems. Searching for indentations on the head — as in phrenology — is junk science.  ◊ “Physiologists believe that they are onto something when they speak of sensory and motor nerves, but they are actually only playing with words ... They say that someone cannot walk because the nerves that set the legs in motion, the motor nerves, are paralyzed. In truth, that person cannot walk because he or she cannot perceive his or her own legs [i.e., someone with higher spiritual consciousness would not be paralyzed].” [18] Paralysis results from nerve damage. Steiner himself is “playing with words,” offering senseless diagnoses and treatments. ◊ “[I]t would be incorrect to allow children to eat too much fattening food. If [we] do so, since the fat blocks the spirit-soul [the human combined spirit and soul], the head separates from the spirit-soul and becomes empty.” [19] Many of Steiner’s “medical” statements depend on the existence of spiritual components that are conveniently impossible to detect by any ordinary means. Steiner depended on clairvoyance, which almost certainly is fraudulent. Steiner’s erroneous approach can sometimes lead to useful advice — e.g., don’t give kids too many fattening foods — but this is almost a random event. An infinite number of psychics typing on an infinite number or typewriters will eventually produce at least some sensible sentences. ◊ “As we appear physically, we are clearly divided into the head system, the chest system, and the abdominal system, including the limbs....” [20] For Steiner, the really important systems are spiritual and hence invisible; the three physical systems represent only how “we appear” to physical sight. But even if we concede this point, the three-system summary is simplistic. Steiner lumps body parts together based on proximity (e.g., everything in the chest is one system), but he also pairs parts that are essentially dissimilar (abdomen and limbs). Think of the “abdominal system.” Clearly, not everything in the abdominal region is part of a single system. The abdominal region contains digestive organs, but it is also the site of sexual organs, and in women it is the site of the womb. The legs are near the abdomen, but they are not part of the digestive system or the reproductive system. The arms are attached to the chest. Note that some real systems — the nerve system, the vascular system — are diffused throughout the entire body, bridging the divisions between Steiner’s three bodily “systems.” Steiner sometimes referred to “systems” in this more accurate way, although often he did so inaccurately, as we will see. ◊ There is “constant tension in the human being between the upper and lower parts of the body. The primary goal of all our searching in the field of medicine should be to master this tension, which is expressed in the forces concentrated in two organs, the pineal gland and the pituitary gland, or hypophysis. All of the forces of the upper body are expressed in the pineal gland, and a state of tension exists between them and the forces of the pituitary, or hypophysis cerebri, which are lower forces.” [21] The notions that the body is constantly at odds with itself, and that understanding this is central to medical research, have little basis in medical science. A healthy organism is internally harmonious. The pineal gland is a small organ inside the brain; it excretes melatonin and is associated with seasonal bodily cycles. The pituitary gland lies under the brain; it excretes various hormones that control functions in various parts of the body, upper and lower. ◊ “First, we have the four senses of touch, life, movement and balance ... The next group of senses, namely smell, taste, sight and temperature are primarily senses of feeling ... I need to add that the sense of I [a high human nonphysical body] and the senses of thought, hearing and speech are....” [22] We have five senses, not twelve: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Some of Steiner’s additional senses are mere combinations of these (we sense motion, for example, through tactile sensations in the inner ear, supplemented by visual cues, auditory cues, and the like). Others are null (such as the sense of life, the sense of thought; we sense life because we are alive and have our five senses; we don’t sense thoughts, they occur in the brain, the center of consciousness). ◊ “With pneumonia, the cause is always in the astral body [another human nonphysical body]; pneumonia can occur in no other way.” [23] Attributing any disease to a spiritual agency removes it from the purview of medical science. The clear danger is that “spiritual” measures may be tried while actual physical cures are ignored. ◊ “[T]here may be a child of a strongly melancholic temperament. One recognizes that this disposition is connected with the secretion of the liver, and this in turn is related to the sugar consumption. In meeting with the parents, every possibility is offered to reach an agreement to increase the sugar intake by sweetening the child’s foods.” [24] The four “temperaments” or “humours” are ancient Greek concepts (see my essay “Humouresque” at this Web site). Modern science has rejected them. There can be no connection between any “temperament” and any organ (e.g., the liver) or substance (e.g., sugar), since the temperaments do not exist. (In a more general sense, of course, a vast range of temperaments are real — but Steiner explicitly meant the ancient four-humour concept, updated only slightly.)  ◊ “[T]he predisposition to diabetes occurs if the I [a high human nonphysical body] excludes itself from internal processes ... All of this secretion, which as you know is an oscillating and circulating activity, is neglected while the I is focusing its chief activity on the brain.” [25] Again, linking a disease to a spiritual cause is doubtful, at best — and it is even more doubtful if the reference is to an unconfirmed spiritual organ or power. ◊ “Extreme flatulence arises from the fact that the astral body [another human nonphysical body] is not completely membered into the bowels....” [26] Again, a spiritual cause for a physical phenomenon. “Membered” means “joined to” or “integrated with.”
◊ “Diabetes is today more prevalent among Jews. Certainly others also have diabetes, but it occurs with particular frequency today among Jews. These people have a tendency to diabetes. The Jew has more difficulty absorbing sugar, yet on the other hand he requires it ... Pork makes the assimilation of sugar extremely difficult — pork aggravates diabetes unusually in the human being — so the prohibition of pork was calculated particularly to prevent diabetes.” [27] Diabetes does not occur more frequently among Jews. About 6% of the people in the world have diabetes. Among Jews, the figure is 7%. In the USA, among all population groups, the average is 8%. (For non-Hispanic whites, it’s about 10%; for non-Hispanic blacks, about 25%.) In Europe, it’s 9%. In Jordan and other Muslim countries, the figure may be as high as 15%. As for whether “The” Jew (as if all Jews are alike) has special trouble absorbing sugar, the answer is no, Steiner’s racism notwithstanding. [28] ◊ Concerning kidney disease, Steiner said “the disease process can be counterbalanced by giving the patient a combination of sulfur and silica.” [29] Relying on homeopathic or other alternative remedies clearly presents dangers. Sulfur is a combustible nonmetal. Silica is the unreactive mineral known as quartz. ◊ “The ashes that a thought leaves strengthen bones, and so people with rickets do better if they think abstractly.” [Rudolf Steiner,FROM THE CONTENT OF THE ESOTERIC CLASSES, March 14, 1908.] Another translation says “Rickets in children can be improved through appropriate geometric study." [ESOTERIC LESSONS 1904-1909, p. 291.] ◊ “If you notice that a person has a problem with the liver, or specifically the intestines, and formic acid doesn't help at all, then you'll have to dispense oxalic acid.” [30] Steiner is often unclear. This statement seems to say that the intestines are a specific part of the liver, which is nonsense. If we interpret the sentence to mean that formic acid and oxalic acid can be helpful both to the liver and, even more, to the intestines, it is moot at best. Formic acid is an irritant made from steam and carbon monoxide. Oxalic acid is a poison used in bleaching and cleaning. ◊ “As far as today’s science and medicine are concerned, the brain is an internal organ, and so are the contents of the lower body. No one notices that this error is just like saying that positive and negative electricity are the same.” [31] Modern “science and medicine” are correct: the brain and all other parts of the body are parts of the body. Steiner denies it, and as usual he asserts that “no one” is correct except himself. Arrogance allied with ignorance is extremely dangerous. The use of analogies hardly offsets this (the subject is the human organism, not electricity.) ◊ “In cancer, the sensory-nervous system invades the metabolic-limb system and begins to assert itself there ... An ear that develops in the right place is a normal organ, but when even a very minimal latent ear or other sense organ develops in the wrong place, we are faced with cancer, or carcinoma. To learn to counteract the body’s tendency to develop sense organs in the wrong place, we must look deep into world evolution, into the cosmic evolution that led to the human being.” [32] Steiner’s views on cosmic evolution are baroque and useless in practical life. (See my essay "Everything" and the essays that follow it.) • The “sensory-nervous system” is an apparently reasonable but actually incorrect concept. Nerves are not connect exclusively to sense organs — they run throughout the entire body, conveying information to and from the brain. If we want to identify a "system" consisting of the nerves and the body parts to which they are attached, that system would be the entire organism. • There is no “metabolic-limb system” — the metabolic process is cellular activity producing material and energy for the life processes. The limbs, like all other parts of the body, receive sustenance from this activity. • “Carcinoma” is not a synonym for “cancer” — there are two general types of cancers, carcinomas and sarcomas. • The body’s “tendency to develop sense organs in the wrong place” is not a major problem. ◊ “But if you become blind inwardly, your physiological processes don't work properly, and soon that will lead to cancer of the intestine, the stomach, the pylorus....” [33] Despite knowing the causes of cancer as well as its treatment (mistletoe), Steiner is reported to have died of cancer. Anthroposophists dispute this, of course.  ◊ “[W]ith the dying out of the worst parts of the ancient population of which I have been speaking [in Asia], the whole region gradually became filled with demonic beings ... Their influence can best be seen at the time of the Great Migrations, when large masses of people, including Attila and his hordes, came over from Asia and caused great terror among the people in Europe. This terror made the population susceptible to the influences of the demonic beings ... As a consequence of the terror produced by the hordes coming over from Asia, there gradually developed what manifested during the Middle Ages as the epidemic of leprosy.” [34] Many diseases come to us due to astrological influences. Leprosy came because of demonic beings empowered by Attila. Didn't learn that in medical school, did you? ◊ “You must know that each limb of a human being is a complete human being, but with the head and chest stunted, that and in the chest the head and limbs maintain balance.” [35] Perhaps your education omitted this as well. Not to mention: ◊ "Five is the number of evil ... When, one day, medicine will make use of this, it will be able to influence beneficially the course of illness. Part of the treatment would be to study the illness in its development on the first and fifth days after its onset, on the separate days at the fifth hour past midnight, and again during the fifth week. Thus it is always the number five that determines when the physician can best intervene." [36] ◊◊◊◊
Here is a particularly startling statement Steiner made on medical matters. Bringing a boy with learning disabilities onto the lecture platform, Steiner used the boy to illustrate some of his medical concepts. He focused particularly on the shape of the boy's head. He said the boy could have been helped by eurythmy, a form of dance Steiner himself invented: "And now, if you will begin to observe the child for yourselves — (to the boy) Come here a minute! — you will find many things to notice. Let me draw your attention, first of all, to the strongly developed lower half of the face. Look at the shape of the nose and the mouth. The mouth is always a little open. With this symptom is connected also the peculiar formation of the teeth. It is important to note these things, for they are unquestionably bound up with the whole soul-and-spirit constitution of the child ... The formation you see here in the jaws — the jaws belong, of course, to the limb system — should be completely taken into the head system. But in this case the head system is not strong enough to bring the limb system fully into itself; consequently, external forces work too powerfully upon this limb-system. Look at a well-formed human being, where the lower part of the head is in harmony with the rest of the head ... In the child before us ... the arms, and also the legs, have not the proportions they would have if they were brought into right relation with the upper part of the body, but have grown too big ... "Observe now how the head is narrow here (in front) on both sides, and pressed back; so we have in this boy the symptom of narrow-headedness, a sign that the intellectual system is but little permeated with will [i.e., will power]. This part (at the back) expresses strong permeation by the will. The front part of the head is accessible only to external influences that come via sense-perception, whereas the back part of the head is accessible to all manner of influences from without [i.e., from the outside]. You have therefore here a beginning of what manifests so strikingly in the arms and legs; the brain enlarges and spreads out at the back of the head ... "Here (in the front) as we remarked, the head is pressed together. In all probability this points back to a purely mechanical injury, either at birth or during pregnancy, a mechanical injury in which we can see nothing else than a working of karma, for it can have no connection with the forces of heredity ... "The entire system of the breath is very little under control, and breathing tends to become disturbed and uneasy. This is connected with the whole way in which the lower jaw is formed ... Consequently, the boy is unable to develop within him the right and necessary quantity of carbonic acid; he is deficient in carbonic acid ... What ought to happen is that gradually, in the course of life, the whole system of movement in man should become a servant of the intellectual system. (To the boy) Stand still a minute! And now come here to me and do this! (Dr. Steiner makes a movement with his arm as if to take hold of something; the boy does not make the movement.) Never mind! We mustn't force him. Do you see? It is difficult for him to do anything; he has not the power to exercise the right control over his metabolism-and-limbs system ... "What would have been the right educational treatment for this child in very early years? Obviously a special effort should have been made to begin with Curative Eurythmy even before he was able to walk, simply moving his limbs oneself in eurythmic movements. If this had been done, then the movements carried out in this way in the limbs would have been reflected in the nerves-and-senses organism, and since at that early age everything, is still supple in the child, the form of the head could actually have grown wider ...." [37] ◊◊◊◊ As perhaps should be obvious, Dr. Steiner had no medical degree; his doctorate was in philosophy. (And the wonder is that it wasn't revoked.) — Roger Rawlings When propounding his weird medical teachings for an audience, Steiner sometimes drew blackboard illustrations — but they added little. "The intake of breath that goes down into the body from the head wants to shape itself into a mummy. And it is only because the body works against this and brings about exhalation that this mummy is changed back again." [Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 71. My sketch of Steiner's sketch, 2009.] "It cannot be the eye that does the seeing, for the eye has to remove itself, it has to become transparent ... It is not the eye that sees but something in the human being that sees by looking through the transparent eye." [Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 99. My sketch of Steiner's sketch, 2009.] There are several things wrong with Steiner's description of vision, but let's concentrate on his underlying meaning. He disparaged eyes just as he disparaged brains — he taught that "true" sight, like "true" cognition, is unconnected to the physical body. Sight and cognition are clairvoyance, he said (although, unfortunately for him, clairvoyance does not exist).  "Take, first of all, man's physical body (red) ... This is man's etheric body body (blue); this is the human astral body (yellow); [and] here we have man's ego [center]... [W]e must be clear about the fact that the whole world actually dwells in man's physical, etheric, and astral bodies." — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 156-157. [R.R., 2009 - my sketch based on the one in the book.] Skeletal/anatomical images from http://www.fromoldbooks.org/. For an exploration of karma, please use this link: "Karma" For Steiner's view on abnormality, please use this link: "Abnormal". Quotations there also bear on quack medicine, human freedom, the central position of humans in the cosmos, and the temperaments of nations. ◊◊◊◊ ENDNOTES [1] See, e.g., “Anthroposophic Medicine,” holistic.com . The complete set of human faculties and parts is long and intricate. Steiner spoke variously of our seven-fold and nine-fold natures. [2] See, e.g., “Childhood Illness: Waldorf View,” cited at openwaldorf.org . [3] Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 165-166. [4] Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), pp. 90-91. Steiner’s followers often accept his guidance concerning vaccination. From a news account in early 2009: “At the private Eugene [Oregon] Waldorf School on McLean Boulevard south of 28th Avenue, three of every four of its nearly 200 students lack one or more of the vaccines Oregon requires against 11 diseases. Their parents have filled out religious exemption forms....” [Anne Williams, “Medical Authorities Want to Determine Why Certain Populations Shun Vaccines,” THE REGISTER-GUARD, Jan. 10, 2009.] A similar situation arose in Colorado “at the Shining Mountain Waldorf School ... [N]early half of the 292 students at Shining Mountain have received only a few, and in some cases none, of the twenty-one childhood vaccinations mandated by Colorado state law ... The shunning of one of the vaccines, against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, has resulted in a revival of whooping cough ... The parents at Shining Mountain are influenced by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner ... Steiner (who was not a medical doctor) believed that children's spirits benefited from being tempered in the fires of a good inflammation ... Shining Mountain's director, Robert Schiappacasse ... became a little concerned, he told me, when the baby of one of the school's secretaries ‘coughed himself into a hernia’ after visiting the school during an outbreak.” [Arthur Allen, “Bucking the Herd,” THE ATLANTIC, Sept. 2002.] California: “A distressing new statewide report shows that an increasing number of California parents are sending their children to school without routine vaccinations. The numbers are astounding: In the Bay Area, the highest exemption rate from kindergarten immunization was nearly 69 percent in 2008, at the Marin Waldorf School in San Rafael ... After a whooping cough outbreak at the East Bay Waldorf School (64 percent exemption rate for kindergartners) last May, [the Department of Public Health] made the difficult decision to close the school for a day and order all the parents to show proof of antibiotic prescription for their children.” [“On School Vaccinations,” THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, April 1, 2009.] Many Waldorf schools overseas also oppose vaccination: “Measles remains a public health problem in Europe, and there are ‘serious doubts’ that it can be eliminated by 2010 as health officials had hoped ... [V]accination rates are lower in families rated ‘hard to reach’ by the authorities and in schools that practice homeopathy and the medical philosophy of the 19th- and early-20th-century theorist Rudolf Steiner.” [Donald G. McNeil, Jr., “Eradication Goal for Measles Is Unlikely, Report Says,” THE NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 13, 2009.] A measles outbreak at a Waldorf school in Switzerland, early in 2009, created news. “The Ecole Rudolf Steiner [translation: Rudolf Steiner School] near Lausanne Tuesday reported 17 cases of measles ... Dr Eric Masserrey, who heads the office responsible for overseeing epidemics, called the outbreak ‘unprecedented’ as his team moved into action to control the spread of the potentially deadly disease ... The health department is also checking to see why the students’ doctors appear not to have reported the cases promptly, as required by Swiss law. Students are allowed to attend school in Switzerland if they have not been vaccinated, but if they are found to have been exposed to the highly infectious viral disease they will be told to stay home for 21 days.” [Crissier, Vaud, Switzerland, genevalunch.com, Feb. 5, 2009.] An update the next day added: “Four new schools were affected Thursday when brothers and sisters of the 17 students with measles from the Rudolf Steiner school in Crissier also fell ill.” [Crissier, Vaud, Switzerland, genevalunch.com, Feb. 6, 2009.] [5] “Anthroposophically Extended Medicine,” defendingsteiner.com . [6] “Rescue Remedy,” openwaldorf.com. (See link above.) [7] “Treating Cancer with Misteltoe [sic]”, openwaldorf.com. (See link above.) [8] Rudolf Steiner, FREUD, JUNG, AND SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, (SteinerBooks, 2001), pp. 124-125. Cf. “[E]ach day, the average heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of blood.” [Heart Information Center, www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Anatomy/anatomy2.cfm .] [9] Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 60. [10] Rudolf Steiner, INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE (Anthroposophic Press, 1999), p. 198.
[11] “anthroposophic medicine,” skepdic.com . You may also want to consult http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/07/22/pseudoscience-not-a-valid-educational-choice/ : "A couple of years ago, Prof Edzard Ernst (co-author of ‘Trick or Treatment’ with Simon Singh) attempted to carry out a systematic review of all randomised clinical trials of Anthroposophical medicine as either a sole or adjunctive treatment for any illness or condition, but failed to find a single study that met the inclusion criteria after running seven separate literature searches." Many Web sources are unreliable, so treat them with care. These sources at least are consistent with one another and with my own research. (Disclosure: I find skepdic.com reliable, but then some of my own work is quoted there.) [12] Robert Smith-Hald, “Growing Up Being Made Sick by Anthroposophy," http://waldorfcritics.org. [13] Sharon Lombard, “Spotlight on Anthroposophy,” http://waldorfcritics.org . [14] Rudolf Steiner, FROM SYMPTOM TO REALITY IN MODERN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1976), p. 89. [15] Rudolf Steiner, THE HEALING PROCESS (SteinerBooks, 2000), pp. 11-12. [16] Rudolf Steiner, INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE (SteinerBooks, 2007), p. 265. [17] Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 241. [18] Rudolf Steiner, POLARITIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF MANKIND, (Steiner Books, 1987), p. 58. [19] Ibid., p. 196. [20] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, pp. 59-60. [21] INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE, p. 65. [22] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, pp. 142-145. [23] Rudolf Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 60. [24] Rudolf Steiner, HUMAN QUESTIONS AND COSMIC ANSWERS (Anthroposophical Pub. Co., 1960), p. 38. [25] INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE, p. 211. [26] Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 131. Steiner’s full wording is “bowels organization.” [27] FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 284. [28] American Diabetes Association, Mendosa.com , EUobserver, Encyclopedia Britannica, etc. [29] Rudolf Steiner, THE HEALING PROCESS (SteinerBooks, 2000), p. 73. [30] Rudolf Steiner, BEES: Lectures (SteinerBooks, 1998), p. 147. [31] INTRODUCING ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MEDICINE, p. 65. [32] THE HEALING PROCESS, pp. 141-142. [33] Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTAL TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner, 2002), p. 62. [34] Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION OF MORALITY (SteinerBooks, 1995), p. 31. [35] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, p. 211. [36] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (Anthroposophic Press, 1974), p. 42. [37] Rudolf Steiner, CURATIVE EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 6, Jul 1, 1924. I have excerpted from a long passage. You can find the entire text at http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19240701p01.html. Because Web site postings are subject to change, I should state that I visited most of the sites mentioned here during the first half of February, 2007. As of early in October, 2008, all seemed still to be online. |