44. How should Health and Illness be Understood in Terms of the Law of Karma?

The following question is posed: “How should health and illness be understood in terms of the ‘law of karma’?”

Since a more detailed explanation of this question will appear soon, the answer can be given briefly for now. As in all things that concern human beings, so also in relation to health and illness, the matter must not be conceived as if they were simply “punishment” and “reward” for what he, the human being, has done in an earlier life, or perhaps even in “this” life. For example, a person may be struck down by an illness for which no cause can be found, either in a previous life or in the present one. Then the illness enters the human life as a “first” event, so to speak, and is itself a “first” cause. It will then have its effect in some way in the following life. The law of karma works everywhere, but one should not think that one has only effects in the past; one can also have causes whose effects lie in the future. According to occult experience, many things can be said about the lawful connections. For example, things that affect the astral body in one life appear as a predisposition of the etheric body in the next. If a person lies frequently in his life, then in this life it is only a characteristic of the astral body that can be attributed to it. But the repetition of 'lying is gradually communicated to the etheric body, and as a consequence, in a next life a frivolous, phlegmatic nature of the personality appears, which is based on certain characteristics of the etheric body. If a person causes a great deal of pain to his fellow human beings, this is also initially based on characteristics of the astral body; but here too, repetition has the effect of communicating something to the etheric body, which manifests itself in the next life as a melancholic disposition, which is also based on characteristics of the etheric body. A further example may be cited. If a person develops a certain senseless habit, this is based in the corresponding life on characteristics of the etheric body. In the next life, however, it becomes apparent that this habit has affected the composition of the physical body. And it is precisely this effect that manifests itself as a predisposition to illness. The cause of a morbid disposition can be recognized in the development of bad habits in a previous life. But all these connections are very complicated, and one can only speak of certain things on the basis of individual, real occult experiences. Health is generally the effect of good, meaningful habits in a previous life. For example, according to the occult research available, the following can be said for individual cases: a thoughtless life leads to a light-hearted disposition in the next existence, which manifests itself in particular in forgetfulness, amnesia; in a further life, forgetfulness appears as a pathological disposition, which is currently often referred to as “nervousness”. The law of karma will only be properly understood when it is not understood in the sense of ordinary human justice, but in a much higher sense.