Within some Biodynamic theology there is a trend to have a very negative view of electro magnetism (EM). This arises from the view that ‘the Ethers’ are the dominant formative influence , while EM is the subservient dross left over from its activity. This arises in part from quotes by Steiner saying EM are ‘fallen ethers’. Given the christian connotations of the word fallen, this thinking goes on to consider EM a ‘sub physical evil’, and something that should be shunned. Hence broadcasting devices like the Lovel field broadcaster and radionic devices are frowned upon.
When I have looked into this matter a couple of questions arise. Firstly, what activity is undertaken by Biodynamic growers that does not first and fore mostly involved the manipulation of electro magnetism? To date this question remains unanswered by all I have asked.
Secondly, is this interpretation of the word ‘fallen’ correct? Is not the ocean ‘fallen’ mist?
While there is one quote by RS decrying EM, there are several others supporting its use. Below is one such quote from the 1921” Anthroposophical Spiritual Science and Medical Therapy” lectures given in 1921 which can be accessed in full here http://wn.rsarchive.org/Medicine/GA313/English/MP1991/AnMeTh_index.html
“In addition, however, the following is also particularly significant. In the form of electricity and magnetism, a process on the earth — or a sum of processes — takes place that is intimately connected with what we have had to call the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial. The domain of electricity and magnetism should really be studied more profoundly in relation to health and illness in the human being. This is a realm, however, in which one can easily blunder, for the following reason. If we represent the surface of the earth schematically in this way (see drawing) — here the inner, here the outer — then what constitutes electricity and magnetism has an intimate relationship to the terrestrial as such. You know, of course, that electricity flows by itself from one ground wire to another, from one Morse telegraph station to another. There is always only one conducting wire; the circuit is completed underground. This has to do with the electric field that the earth has already made its own. What is concealed in electricity and magnetism is fundamentally extra-terrestrial and “intra-terrestrial” (yellow); but the earth takes possession of the electrical effects that are extra-terrestrial (blue). The electrical effects, and also the magnetic effects, however, can also be held back in the vicinity of the earth without being appropriated by the earth (red). These are all the electrical and magnetic effects that we have in our electric and magnetic fields.
If we magnetize a piece of iron, we make it into a little thief with regards to the earth. We transfer to it the ability to steal and retain for itself what the earth actually wants to take from cosmic space before the earth has been able to do so. We make a magnet into a little thief. It appropriates for itself, and has the power to retain, what the earth would like for itself. The entire electric and magnetic field we have on earth is actually something we have stolen from the earth for human use; in this way we induce nature herself to steal, thus retaining the extra-terrestrial above. We thus retain an eminently extra-terrestrial element, which we even keep above the earth in a clever way, although the earth, with all the force at its disposal, would like to absorb it so that it may work from within outward. But we do not let it get to this point; we hold it back.
Therefore in the electric and magnetic fields we can expect to find valuable opponents to unrhythmic human processes. We must develop a therapy specially geared to this. For example, if a marked irregularity or powerful disturbance appears in the rhythmic system (or even a weak disturbance; it would actually work better if the disturbance were weak), we might simply hold a strong magnet near the human organism. It should not touch but be held at a greater or lesser distance to be determined by experimentation. As I said, the appropriate distance will need to be established through research.
I would also like to tell you how one can best make use here of previous scientific results. In doing so I do not intend merely to tell you an interesting fact — for outer science is not yet ready for it — but rather to draw your attention to something about which we can acquire quite another complex of thoughts. The Professor Benedikt mentioned above made some very interesting investigations in a dark room on the lowest human auric radiations. These have nothing directly to do with what I have described in my book, Theosophy, for example, though there is an indirect connection. The latter are higher radiations only perceived in the supersensible. But between these higher radiations and the coarser effects seen by the eye on the human being, there is a domain that can be perceived in a dark room. Professor Benedikt has described his work in the dark room in an interesting way. He used individuals who were sensitive to the phenomena of the divining rod, that is, individuals in whose hands the rod moved significantly. Benedikt investigated the auric radiations of these individuals in a dark room. The following results were obtained. The auric radiations of such individuals differed markedly from those of other people in that there was greater asymmetry: the radiations from the left side of the person were different from those from the right. The head radiation was also quite different.
A beginning has thus already been made in seeing human radiations through physical demonstrations, even though these results are received very skeptically. But we must remain clear that these are only the lowest radiations connected with the human organization. In studying these, one has not yet entered the realm of the supersensible, as many might maintain who would like supersensible investigation to be nice and comfortable. Nevertheless, this is a beginning and could have therapeutic results.
For example, one could investigate the effects of applying a magnet to the back of a person in the first stages of tuberculosis; that is, we might let him be irradiated by a magnetic field. This could be made more effective by holding the magnet at a slant, moving it up and down so that gradually the entire chest organism was irradiated by the magnetic field. If this magnetic field is applied we do not need a “light field” at the same time; this would only be a disturbance. We could then put this patient into a dark room and actually observe the radiations from his fingers. These could soon be seen quite clearly. When we do this — put the patient in a dark room, having applied a strong magnet to his back, and observe that fine radiations proceed from the fingertips (cone-shaped, with the apex directed outward) — it is possible to be convinced that he has really been irradiated by the magnetic field. In this way, simply by using a magnetic field, extraordinarily beneficial results can be achieved in working against the manifestations of pulmonary tuberculosis, for example.
These things show us how seriously we must take the statement that only effects occur in the human chest and that we must turn to the environment if we wish to cure; that is, we must apply something from man’s environment: light, climatic influences (for instance, sending the patient to a higher altitude), or the magnetic field. We can even include the electric field, but we must be careful about the way that this is applied. There is a vast difference between applying the poles directly to the organism by letting the electricity flow through the human being and calling forth an electric field as such and placing the patient within this field without the circuit being completed from pole to pole through him. Here, too, experiments need to be done that will be exceptionally significant.
In certain circumstances we can also obtain beneficial effects by completing the circuit through the patient. In such cases, however, only what works into the rhythmic system from the metabolic system is effective. Only the metabolic system is influenced if I pass electric currents through the patient himself, completing the circuit through him. On the other hand, if I place a person into an electric field, I will be able to observe the radiations in a dark room from his fingers, toes, and all pointed extremities. I will then notice that I can work curatively on patients who have a regular, healthy digestion but who show symptoms of so-called tuberculosis.”
Then in Lecture 4 the next day
“At this point I will try to answer a question put to me yesterday concerning the difference between treatment by direct current and by alternating current. (In the course of these lectures I will try to answer all your questions, so far as time permits.) In cases where one is treating a weakened individual — that is a person clearly suffering from malnutrition or the like — where the disturbance proceeds more from the lower portion of the middle human being, it is better to use an alternating current. If the disturbance clearly proceeds from the upper human being, it is better to use a direct current. However, the difference is not very great, and if you use one in one case and the other in another case you cannot make too great a mistake.”