Health / Attitude / Epidemics

There is nothing material that does not originate from the spirit. What people experience in health and disease stems from their inner attitude, their thoughts. It is undoubtedly a true proverb: What you think today, you will be tomorrow. It should be clear to you that if an era has evil, depraved thoughts, the next generation and the subsequent period must pay the price physically. It is a true saying: The sins of the fathers will be visited on the future generations. It will not be without consequence that the people of the 19th century began to think in such a grossly materialistic way, to turn their minds away from everything spiritual.

What people have thought then will have consequences. Thus, we are not so far removed from the time when peculiar diseases and epidemics will occur in human life! What we call nervousness will happen, at the latest within half a century, in a severe measure. Just as plague and cholera and leprosy in the Middle Ages once were rife, so there will be psychic epidemics, diseases of the nervous system in epidemic form. These are the consequences of the fact that people lack a spiritual core in their lives. Where awareness of this spiritual core as the centre of life is present, there people will become healthy under the influence of a healthy, correct worldview.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 96 – Ursprungsimpulse der Geisteswissenschaft – Berlin, January 29, 1906 (p. 18)

Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Previously posted on October 14 , 2018

 

Necessary knowledge

Nobody can fail to realise that it is just as necessary for a human being to have knowledge, feeling and perceptiveness of the life between death and the new birth as of earthly life itself. For when he enters earthly life at birth, the confidence, strength and hopefulness connected with that life depend upon what forces he brings with him from the life between the last death and the present birth. But again, the forces we are able to acquire during that life depend upon our conduct in the earlier incarnation, upon our moral and religious disposition or the quality of our attitude of soul.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 141 – Between Death and Rebirth: LECTURE TWO – Berlin, 20th November 1912

Translated by E.H. Goddard & D.S. Osmond

Previously posted on July 28, 2018

The best way to educate children is through self-education

It is no exaggeration to say that the one who, in the environment of the child, as far as this is before the age of seven, from his inner being tries very hard to be a good person, a person who has a good attitude to life, who conscientiously decides not to do anything wrong in his thought life, his emotional life, towards the child, not even unspoken, has the most substantial influence on the child because of the imponderable features of life. 

In this respect, there is still much to be looked at, which – if I may say so – still exist between the lines in life. As we have gradually encapsulated ourselves in a more materialistic life, especially as far as the finer things in life are concerned, we have become more accustomed to finding such things unimportant. Only when they are valued again will there be the definite impetus that pedagogy needs, especially in an age that wants to call itself social, a socially-minded age. You cannot correctly assess specific life experiences if you do not appreciate those things that underlie man’s spirit and soul.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 297 – Idee  und  Praxis der  Waldorfschule – Bazel, 27 november 1919 (bladzijde  163-164)

Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Knowledge and feeling of the life between death and the new birth

It is just as necessary for a human being to have knowledge, feeling and perceptiveness of the life between death and the new birth as of earthly life itself. For when he enters earthly life at birth, the confidence, strength and hopefulness connected with that life depend upon what forces he brings with him from the life between the last death and the present birth. 

But again, the forces we are able to acquire during that life depend upon our conduct in the earlier incarnation, upon our moral and religious disposition or the quality of our attitude of soul. We must realise that whether the future evolution of the human race will be furthered or impeded depends upon our active and creative co-operation with the super-sensible world in which we live between death and the new birth. 

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 141 – Between Death and Rebirth – Lecture 2 – Berlin, 20th November 1912

Translated by E. H. Goddard & D. S. Osmond

Previously posted on January 9, 2017

Health/Attitude/Epidemics

There is nothing material that does not originate from the spirit. What people experience in health and disease stems from their inner attitude, their thoughts. It is undoubtedly a true proverb: What you think today, you will be tomorrow. It should be clear to you that if an era has evil, depraved thoughts, the next generation and the subsequent period must pay the price physically. It is a true saying: The sins of the fathers will be visited on the future generations. It will not be without consequence that the people of the 19th century began to think in such a grossly materialistic way, to turn their minds away from everything spiritual.

What people have thought then will have consequences. Thus, we are not so far removed from the time when peculiar diseases and epidemics will occur in human life! What we call nervousness will happen, at the latest within half a century, in a severe measure. Just as plague and cholera and leprosy in the Middle Ages once were rife, so there will be psychic epidemics, diseases of the nervous system in epidemic form. These are the consequences of the fact that people lack a spiritual core in their lives. Where awareness of this spiritual core as the centre of life is present, there people will become healthy under the influence of a healthy, correct worldview.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 96 – Ursprungsimpulse der Geisteswissenschaft – Berlin January 29, 1906 (p. 18)

Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Previously posted on October 18, 2016