Spiritual Science and the Art of Healing

Book excerpt: Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical medicine, highly regarded and widely practiced in Europe, integrates allopathic medical practices with alternative remedies, including dietary and nutritional therapies, massage, hydrotherapy, art therapy, and counseling. It recognizes that health and illness are directly related to our states of consciousness, and it views illness as an opportunity to create a new state of physical, emotional, and spiritual balance. Modern medicine tends to consider only the material aspect of human beings, an approach that fails to bring the individual to a state of complete wellness. Steiner's holistic view of humanity-beings composed of body, soul, and spirit-takes into consideration the seven-year cycles of human development, the influence of education on health, the relationship between psychological symptoms and physical conditions, the problem of cancer, the four cardinal organs, heredity, and the spiritual balance that characterizes true health. New, revised edition of Anthroposophical Medicine.