The human being is a bridge

When, at Easter 1920, Rudolf Steiner gave his first course for physicians at the Goetheanum (GA 312), the foundations for Anthroposophic Medicine were laid. In twenty lectures he discussed the human organism, its pathologies and the corresponding therapies.

Today we stand astounded at the germinal power and breadth of those lectures: many of the things Rudolf Steiner said then have been corroborated by modern findings, for instance the connection between the intestine (microbiome) and the nervous system. Numerous indications have become daily practice in Anthroposophic Medicine, such as the use of mistletoe therapy in cancer and Rhythmical Einreibungen in nursing. Many other such seeds are waiting to be scientifically explored and applied in practice.

Healthy humans and a healthy earth

The motif of the bridge is central to medicine: Anthroposophic Medicine is a bridge that originates in the achievements of natural-scientific medicine and leads across to a health-oriented understanding of human beings as self-developing entities: a medicine that, through the therapeutic relationship, builds a bridge to the patient and other professional groups with whom it forms a therapeutic working community; a medicine that develops and applies its remedies on the basis of a living understanding of the human being, nature and the cosmos, a medicine, in other words, that builds a bridge between microcosm and macrocosm. We need to take responsibility for the living earth and its protective layers because our health cannot be separated from that of the earth.

From 12 to 20 September 2020 we will celebrate the birthday of Anthroposophic Medicine at the Goetheanum with a world conference. We have chosen the bridge motif for the conference because it will be about current developments and future perspectives in all areas of life that are touched by Anthroposophic Medicine. Eurythmy performances and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, festive encounters, lectures and around a hundred workshops will await the birthday guests, form bridges from person to person and from the past to future developments, to «future existence».