Spleen massage as a digestion-stimulating application of rhythmical massage therapy

Introduction

The transformation of the food we eat requires effective digestion, which in turn requires a strong life organisation (etheric body) (1). With a weakened life organisation, for example caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, aversion to certain foods and fatigue can occur, which affect food intake. This may lead to malnutrition, weight loss and cachexia. Rhythmical massage therapy and targeted external applications offer various measures to build up strength, improve nutritional intake and generally support and regulate metabolic activity. For the corresponding treatment of gastrointestinal symptoms in oncology, see also these articles on Anthromedics: "Rhythmical massage therapy for cancer-related fatigue", "Rhythmical massage therapy for loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting", "Rhythmical massage therapy for constipation" and "Rhythmical massage therapy for diarrhea".

The principles of spleen massage in the anthroposophical understanding of the human being

Rudolf Steiner described the spleen as an "organ of sensation" that regulates the "rhythm of food intake" (2). He emphasised the importance of this rhythm-related function with regard to the "unconscious activity of reason and common sense, which is mediated by the spleen," (3) in the human organism, in contrast to the conscious functions which are located in the brain and nervous system. "The human organism is constantly poisoning itself through its ideational activity and is continually counteracting these toxic conditions with unconscious states of will. The centre of unconscious states of will is located in the spleen. If we pervade the spleen with consciousness, influencing it through massage, we work against the highly toxic effect that emanates from our higher consciousness." (3) Steiner went on to explain that the spleen is less orientated towards the actual metabolism and more towards the rhythmical processes that take place between food intake and the breathing cycle. It acts as a kind of "dividing wall" that creates a balance between the external random nutritional rhythm and the internal regular breathing/pulse rhythm and also plays a relevant role in maintaining the greater rhythms of waking and sleeping (4). This function of the spleen is based on an autonomous basic rhythm that influences the nutritional rhythm through dilation and contraction, which has now been proven by modern imaging techniques (5, 6, 7). This nutrition-dependent change in volume of the spleen is also related to the liver through "passive, that is, congestive, dilations from the portal vein system", which are finely regulated reflexively by a kind of "Windkessel function". The spleen thus ensures a constant portal vein pressure and is justifiably described as a "regulatory function in nutrition" (7).

For the prevention and treatment of cancer, the rhythm of food intake probably plays a more important role than the composition of food (see also "Nutrition in cancer"). This opens up significant therapeutic possibilities for external applications and rhythmical massage therapy through corresponding organ Einreibung or massage of the spleen-liver-intestine axis. As mentioned, the spleen is connected to the hepatobiliary process: it prepares the formation of bile by breaking down erythrocytes and transporting bilirubin to the liver. Every substance that we consume as food has its own inherent forces, laws and its own rhythm. The human organism has to overcome these properties of the substances ingested and adapt them to its internal organisation and rhythm. "In the spleen, the liver and the gall-bladder as they are in themselves and as they react upon the stomach, we have those organs which adapt the laws of the outside world, from which we take our food, to the inner organisation, the inner rhythm, of the human being." (8) It therefore makes sense to combine the spleen massage with a liver massage. In this context, Steiner recommended spleen massage with copper-containing ointment and liver massage with iron-containing ointment in some cases of illness (9, 10).

Another aspect is the connection between spleen activity and lead processes. Rudolf Steiner speaks in this context of the polarity between the astral body and I-organisation ("upper human being") on the one hand and the physical and etheric body ("lower human being") on the other:

The upper lead processes have a strong effect on nervous and sensory activity, on all those things "which, starting from the I, are the formative processes in the human being" (11, 12), on the plastic formation and consolidation of the physical body right down to bone formation. On the other hand, these upper "cold" processes lead to "increased breakdown, overstimulation of the sensory and nervous system and degenerative diseases." (13 p. 352)

Lower lead processes are "carriers of differentiated warmth effects" (13 p. 352) and are related to splenic efficacy. These processes "are expressed in the individual blood rhythm and the body's own warmth. Their one-sidedness leads to disorders in thermoregulation" (13 p. 349). Immunological processes that have a certain centre in the white pulp of the spleen are directly associated with thermoregulation.

The foreign nutritional stream must be overcome, internalised, harmonised and reconstituted to own substance.

Indications for spleen massage

The spectrum of indications for spleen massage covers the entire field of spleen function. Its use is indicated

• for metabolic weakness, nutritional disorders, loss of appetite, emaciation, exhaustion and fatigue, disorders of the wake-sleep rhythm;
• for diseases of the immune system which manifest themselves on the skin and mucous membranes – in the sense of a disrupted breathing process at the interfaces between the outside and inside world – e.g. skin allergies, allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma, food intolerance, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis;
• in the case of a predominance of breakdown processes associated with cramps, congestion, sclerosing tendencies, deposits and signs of degeneration (14 p. 149);
• as well as mental conditions such as health anxiety, melancholy through to depression.

Performing spleen massage

Individualisation, demarcation, killing off and reforming cold and warmth processes are key polar motifs that we find in the lead processes. The image of the rhythmical harmonising force of the spleen is created in the lemniscate that the therapist's hand performs in the spleen region. It is performed with tranquillity, inwardness and warmth, rhythmically "like the strokes of a bell", so that "the organ has to resound in its depths" (14 p. 147).

The upper large loop of the lemniscate, which is performed with the therapist's right hand, encompasses the lower left ribcage from the back to the front. It envelops the entire spleen region and indicates the connection of the spleen with the rhythmical system. It directly perceives every breath, every pulse wave. The lower loop encircles the metabolic region and lies between the flank and the lower left abdomen. It is smaller and is "drawn together almost to a breathing return point" (14 p. 149) with the hand gradually detaching itself from full skin contact. The left hand rests diagonally on the liver region and "in listening" seeks the connection to the warm and "sounding" current expanding from the right hand.

Liver massage

The spleen and liver occupy a special position within the organs of the human metabolism. While the spleen is regarded as the higher-order organ in the metabolic system, as it has a rhythmical, regulating function in the processes that take place between food intake and breathing rhythm, the liver, with its differentiated anabolic and catabolic activity, is the central organ. It is our "nourishing, substance-forming organ that constantly revitalises and builds up the organism" and remains "close to the embryonic nutritional and breathing mode of the placenta throughout our lives" (15 p. 88). Flooded by five different fluid movements, its plastic consistency formed by the surrounding organs, the liver is characterised by the fluid organism like no other organ. Through this, but also through its glandular activity and high regenerative capacity, the liver shows its strong relationship with the etheric body.

The liver is the organ that enables the I to enter the physical body through the warmth organisation. Through the interaction of the liver-biliary system, the absorbed nutrients are driven all the way into the warmth organisation of the blood. From there, and only through stimulating the bodily substance with the I, can individual human substance be formed. "Because we have the liver, which secretes bile that mixes with the chyme in our intestine, so imbuing it with liver secretions, it can then be driven into our I organism" (16 p. 53).

The more, then, that the I-forces can intervene in the digestive and metabolic processes through the biliary function of the liver, the more efficient the metabolism will be.

The tumour process, which is accompanied by weight loss and the symptoms mentioned at the beginning, indicates a loosening of the soul and spiritual constitutional elements from the physical and etheric organisation. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy also severely affects the life organisation. Every mineral substance – including many medicines and especially chemotherapeutic agents – puts a strain on the liver, which ultimately leads to a stagnation of the etheric processes.

For rhythmical massage therapy, liver massage represents a therapeutic possibility to stimulate the healthy flow of the life forces again. Here, too, the treatment follows the principle of the hierarchical order of the human organisation, in that consciousness is transferred to the organic processes of the liver by the touching hand: the higher organisation acts on the next one down. The warm hand of the therapist, guided by the I, traverses with "growing and then contracting circles" the entire liver region, "the centre of which rests roughly on the gall bladder area" (14 p. 149).

Literaturverzeichnis

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10. Note: In case of gallbladder dysfunction, Rudolf Steiner prescribed a belt with iron filings in Case 84 (see lit. 12). Later, this type of application was often replaced in practice by an iron-containing liver massage.
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