The National Institute of Mental Illness says on its website that 1 in 5 US citizens suffer from mental health issues every year. So, those of us who experience these maladies are definitely not alone. Out of the 332 million people in the US, that’s 66 million. Wow. One of the most prevalent mental illnesses is diagnosed as General Anxiety Disorder or GAD. GAD and depression top the list.
Some of the symptoms that can occur for GAD are listed on the Mayo Clinic website: persistent worrying or anxiety about a number of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events; overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes; perceiving situations and events as threatening, even when they aren’t; difficulty handling uncertainty; indecisiveness and fear of making the wrong decision; inability to set aside or let go of a worry; inability to relax, feeling restless, and feeling keyed up or on edge; and difficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind “goes blank.” Of course, there are physical signs like fatigue or trouble sleeping, among others. The two main treatments for GAD are psychotherapy (especially cognitive behavioral therapy) and medications. Many people self-medicate with alcohol or drugs.
What is going on? Rudolf Steiner points to a root of these issues: we have forgotten that we are spiritual beings. In fact, many of us actively reject this core truth of being human. The symptoms listed above are not from bacteria or viruses, they are soul issues that are actively disrupting our lives. The traumatic world humanity has created for us to try to live in may be the catalyst for GAD, but underneath that is the eradication of what we know about the whole human being and its place in the universe. We’ve lost our birthright. If we look at the symptoms once again, we may realize that each one would disappear if we had a sense of security in life, if we knew how we got here and why. We can know this.
Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:
Souls without a rudder, souls without a firm grip on life who feel they do not belong, are numerous in our time. They are for the most part souls who, out of an instinctive need, long for something different from what traditional values can offer, souls who have been searching without finding anything which could give them a feeling of security, of belonging. So, what is lacking, what is it that man needs? What does man need to find a secure path through life?
What he needs above all is a consciousness of belonging within the world. Weakness and inner discontent come from the soul’s feeling of isolation. Life’s greatest question is in fact: Where and how do I fit into the world?
When we turn to natural science to reach a satisfying answer to the question: Where, as a human being, is my place in the world? then, at best, the natural-scientific world view will tell him where his physical body belongs within world evolution as a whole. But the natural-scientific world view has absolutely nothing to say about how man’s soul, let alone spirit, fits into world evolution… (Spiritual science shows) how we are related to the primordial warmth pervaded through and through by the individual beings of the Hierarchies who are still about us. We are placed within a cosmos filled with soul and spirit.
Spiritual science shows our soul and spirit to be part and parcel of a universal all. It is a science that can describe the universal all in detail. Thus, spiritual science alone can give the human soul a context without which it feels annihilated. The dissatisfaction and insecurity felt by modern man reflect modern thinking. This thinking disregards the soul and declares that only the human body exists within the cosmic all. Another aspect is that the soul feels it has nothing to relate to, and that prevents it from finding inner strength. To reach inner strength of soul one must have attained concepts and ideas which depict the cosmic all as containing man as a being of soul and spirit; just as natural science depicts physical man as part of the physical evolution of the universe.
Excerpt from: Karma of Materialism, Lecture II by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin Aug. 7, 1917
We should not abandon natural scientific thinking but rather permeate it with spiritual thinking. Without going into details about society’s ills, which seem impossibly complicated and hopeless, we can imagine that a kind of thinking imbued with spiritual science would prove a crucial alliance to natural science in all our endeavors. Try to imagine the world-changing impact of scientists, doctors, teachers, economists, farmers, etc., whose thinking embraces our place in the spiritual world.
Try to imagine the life-changing impact this thinking would have for each of us. We owe it to ourselves to recognize that being human is so much more than being a physical body. We are soul/spiritual beings residing in human bodies. We can know little about ourselves if we refuse to recognize that fact. The soul ailments we suffer can be cured by the spirit, but to know the spirit, in addition to studying spiritual science, we must quiet our minds daily… not an easy task, but it is a way to open the door to the spiritual world.
Not that long ago, meditation wasn’t taken seriously in Western cultures, but it is now. Just last week (Nov. 9, 2022) a study found that a daily mindfulness meditation practice is as effective as escitalopram, the “gold-standard” drug used in treating anxiety... and meditation is free.
Mayo Clinic: Generalized Anxiety Disorder >