Individual Experience & the Consciousness Soul

by Adam Blanning, MD

Within the anthroposophic medical work there have always been questions about “How can we become part of the larger medical conversation?” or “How can we share anthroposophic insights in a way that will help others open to a more spiritual understanding of the human being?” These are not easy questions to answer; as soon as you mention the words “homeopathy” or “astral body” many medical professionals stop listening. There is a big gap to bridge, so finding consistent ways to make inroads on an institutional level has been an ongoing challenge.

What does prove to be consistently powerful, however, is the relationship between individuals, especially as it relates to one’s path of illness and healing. This has proved true in a striking way over the last months as there has been a dramatic increase in interest in mistletoe as a cancer therapy. It is related to a patient of Dr. Peter Hinderberger in Baltimore, Maryland, who refused chemotherapy for her stage 4 colon cancer and instead focused on mistletoe, a high alkaline diet, and prayer. She is now free from cancer. Out of sharing about her experience a grassroots organization called “Believe Big” has formed, which works to promote alternative cancer therapies and which is actively fundraising in order to begin studies on mistletoe safety at Johns Hopkins. A fuller report from the Johns Hopkins newsletter can be found here: (http:// hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2014/spring/mistletoe-therapy-cancer).

It is hard to know exactly how far this will go, but it does feel like this impulse is receiving guidance and support greater than anyone could have planned or specifically orchestrated. PAAM, the anthroposophic physicians’ association, is looking at ways to develop broader training programs for physicians—specifically in mistletoe use—so that there will be enough practitioners to meet the needs of people with cancer. Most beautifully, it is an opportunity to reach and support more people spiritually/physiologically as they are approaching possible death and loss, for a cancer illness is most certainly a very powerful and particular threshold experience. And it is arising not out of large institutional shifts or through financial motivations, but through the power of individual experience and insight.