Spirituality – Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy

Applications

Applications of Anthroposophy Include:

• Phenomenological approaches to science,
• New approaches to painting and sculpture.
• John Wilkes’ fountain-like flowforms. These sculptural forms guide water into rhythmic movement and are used both in water-purification projects and decoratively.

Steiner/Waldorf Education

This is a pedagogical movement with over 1000 Steiner or Waldorf schools (the latter name stems from the first such school, founded in Stuttgart in 1919) located in some 60 countries; the great majority of these are independent (private) schools. Sixteen of the schools have been affiliated with the United Nations’ UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network, which sponsors education projects that foster improved quality of education throughout the world, in particular in terms of its ethical, cultural, and international dimensions. Waldorf schools receive full or partial governmental funding in some European nations, Australia and in parts of the United States (as Waldorf method public or charter schools).

The schools are located in a wide variety of communities and cultures: from the impoverished favelas of São Paulo to the wealthy suburbs of New York City; in India, Egypt, Australia, the Netherlands, Mexico and South Africa. Though most of the early Waldorf schools were teacher-founded, the schools today are usually initiated and later supported by an active parent community. Waldorf education is one of the most visible practical applications of an anthroposophical view and understanding of the human being and has been characterized as “the leader of the international movement for a New Education”.

Biodynamic Agriculture

Biodynamic agriculture, the first intentional form of organic farming, began in the 1920s when Rudolf Steiner gave a series of lectures since published as Agriculture. Steiner is considered one of the founders of the modern organic farming movement.

Anthroposophical Medicine

Steiner gave several series of lectures to physicians and medical students. Out of those grew a complementary medical movement intending to “extend the knowledge gained through the methods of the natural sciences of the present age with insights from spiritual science.” This movement now includes hundreds of M.D.s, chiefly in Europe and North America, and has its own clinics, hospitals, and medical schools.

One of the most studied applications has been the use of mistletoe extracts in cancer therapy. The extracts are generally no longer used to reduce or inhibit tumor growth, for which verifiable results have been found in vitro and in animal studies but not in humans, but instead to improve the patients’ quality of life and to reduce tumor-induced symptoms and the side-effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. According to the National Cancer Institute, “Mistletoe extract has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory and to affect the immune system. However, there is limited evidence that mistletoe’s effects on the immune system help the body fight cancer…. At present, the use of mistletoe cannot be recommended outside the context of well-designed clinical trials.”

Several pharmaceutical companies have grown out of anthroposophical medicine, including Weleda, Wala, and Dr. Hauschka.

Luc Paquin