iii: Anthroposophical Views
Intuiting a connection Dora Wagner Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel,1964)
In anthroposophical medicine, the head— as the carrier of the brain —the cranial nerves, and the decisive sense organs are the dynamic focal point of the ‘nerve-sense system’, which is effective in every other part of the human organism, albeit through quite different actions. As you’ll recall from my explanation of the tripartite system in the November (2020) issue, the root of a plant is linked to our nervesense system. In the natural kingdom it is the mineral; in the planetary realm, the moon; and in us, it is expressed in thinking. The head, containing most of our sense-organs, is seen to convey impressions from the outer world to our inner being, and the brain to reflect our spiritual and sensual-physical activity into our soul and thus into our consciousness (Steiner, 1918). We are all familiar with being told ‘to keep a cool head’ when ‘wetting our pants with fear‘, having ‘our hearts in our mouths’, ‘hanging our heads in shame’, and so on. Any efforts to stop these physical responses to mental states such as anxiety, stress or depression, are relatively ineffective. These reactions are triggered by a part of our nervous system that works relatively independently and autonomously, controlling functions such as breathing, digestion, and more. In these processes, the nerves cause the physical reactions that set us up for fight or flight: faster heartbeat and breathing, contraction of the bladder, cessation of bowel activity. Although we all experience how much our mental states are connected to our bodies, many people nonetheless feel there is a gap between mental and physical phenomena and tend to believe in a ‘mind-body dualism’. The understanding of mind and body as two entirely different entities is found in almost all
human cultures. In the course of the 20th century, Western scientists have banished phenomenology and introspection as ‘unscientific’. Yet, whilst they can now objectively explain parts of the human being, by no means can they provide a convenient solution to the brain-mind or mind-body problem. Philosophy, neuroscience, medicine and psychology have also not yet found an answer to how our consciousness arises, nor to where our thoughts and our souls reside (Hoffman, 2008). Are these distinct entities or identical unities? Is not everything in the cosmos, like the cosmos itself, a unified whole? Isn't this how we came into being? And is the brain the only suitable place for the interplay of body, mind and soul? Is it really only here that the outer world can inspire us, be brought into our inner view, become intuited and reflected upon? I consider weak dualism to be inherently paradoxical and counterintuitive, strong dualism rooted in a sense of mystery. Although the monistic position has been supported by
