Rudolf Steiner on smoking - this made me laugh! · Spiritual Scientist Community

Rudolf Steiner on smoking - this made me laugh!

A little story about Rudolf Steiner from Günther Wachsmuth:

When one, as a younger person, approached Rudolf Steiner with the request for advice one often put the request in the form of a question: "Is it right to do this?" Or: "Ought one not to do that?" etc. He very kindly but systematically got us over the habit of such a form of question.

I should like to illustrate with respect to smoking. When I became acquainted as a young man with Rudolf Steiner and then frequently accompanied him in person on his trips - as to which experience I shall say more later on - it had become an inevitable habit out of the period of my university sturlies that I liked to smoke and I must confess, smoked a great deal. There were some among the members of the Society who had not yet overcome the habit of "You ought" or "You ought not."

And these immediately informed me with lifted finger that smoking in the presence of Dr. Steiner was something unheard of. In the first place, I knew that, although Dr. Steiner no longer smoked, he had smoked at an earlier time and - I may remark aside - still enjoyed, according to the old custom, snuff. In the second place, even if this had not been the case, I felt that it would be inwardly untrue to behave in his presence as if I did not smoke in spite of the fact that I enjoyed doing so. I was also more firmly convinced of his capacity to see into my soul, after many perfectly clear experiences, than many others were who spoke of this but did not take it quite realistically. I continued, therefore, to smoke, knowing that he would know of this habit of mine and take whatever attitude toward it he thought right.

As a matter of fact, he was not at all offended by this although I was in his presence daily more than those who had wamed me. When he himself had said nothing about this for a long time, I could not refrain from questioning him directly when we took an automobile trip together from Stuttgart to Basel: "Doctor, should one really smoke or not?" I had forgotten that he never answered questions put in that form, but generally threw light upon them in a picture or an anecdote.

In reply to my question, he told me the following: "Early this morning I was in the clinic of Dr. Palmer in Stuttgart. A patient there asked me: 'Doctor, does my illness come from smoking?' I asked him: 'How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?' He answered: 'Forty.' I then said to him: 'Your illness does not come from smoking, but, if you would smoke, let us say, only twenty cigarettes a day instead of forty, that would be much better:'"

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Rudolf Steiner on smoking - this made me laugh!