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whether the body is capable of creating formic acid. Then, at that point when
the body is no longer capable of the task, death takes over. A human being
goes into the spirit world and can‘t endure any longer being in the body. We
say that a human being dies at a certain point in time, and after a long period
of time comes back in another body. Meanwhile this person is in the spirit
world (Steiner, 1998a, pp. 155-156).
He taught that you can get oxalic acid from wood sorrel or clover, and that ―if a person has
a problem with the liver or intestines, you have to give oxalic acid. The strange thing,
however, is that the person to whom you give oxalic acid will, after a certain amount of
time, begin to produce formic acid within!‖ (Steiner, 1998a, p.147). When humans stop
making formic acid from oxalic acid, their physical bodies die and their spirit bodies leave.
Steiner explains:
This is all due to formic acid. We also have understanding and knowledge
within us because we have formic acid. Formic acid would not exist if it
weren‘t for oxalic acid being present beforehand.
These are the things you begin to understand only if you now ask yourself
what the situation is with oxalic acid. You see, oxalic acid is present
everywhere where there is life. Wherever something is alive, there is oxalic
acid. But there is also an etheric body. One function that the etheric body
carries out is that it immediately renews oxalic acid. However, oxalic acid will
never become formic acid of a type that a human or animal organism can use
unless the astral body transforms the oxalic acid into formic acid. For it is a
fact that the formic acid that is derived from the process in the retort is a
formic acid that will be of no benefit to the human or animal body. You‘ll be
deceived if you believe that it can really help at all, because in reality it is
dead. The formic acid created in humans and by insects is alive, and appears
wherever sensations and feelings arise and the soul element is present. A
human being must develop formic acid within if such a person wants to
generate the soul element from the basic level of life processes that exist in
the lower body, where oxalic acid plays a very important role. Then the soul
element lives in the formic acid of the breath and rises to the head, where it
can continue to function and become effective. The soul element needs this
process that converts oxalic acid into formic acid within a human being.
(Steiner, 1998a, pp. 151-152)
The doctor was attempting to heal my daughter‘s Anthroposophic spiritual bodies. By
rubbing Oxalis cream on her abdomen, she would develop formic acid within and have life.
―It‘s the formic acid that attracts and mobilizes soul and spirit, otherwise the spirit will go
away‖ (Steiner, 1998a, p. 154).
Steiner appears to have based his medicine on Hermetic ideas dating back to the 1600s and
before. Evidently, Rosicrucian doctors spread their occult truths to the people at large,
[f]or it was one of their fundamental principles, that from the small circles in
which they were united, Rosicrucians should go out into the world—generally
working…as doctors of medicine. But at the same time, while they practiced
medicine, they spread knowledge of many things in the wide circles into
which they came.‖ (Steiner, 1965, p. 91)
The scholar, Geoffrey Ahern, who so far has written the only critical, in depth book on
Anthroposophy published in English, notes that Steiner was to accept an alchemical
synthesis stemming from a blend of Gnostic Alexandrian and Aristotelian thought, Egyptian
technology, and Mesopotamian astrology. Steiner believed ―that gold corresponds with the

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sun, silver with the moon, copper with Venus, lead with Saturn, iron with Mars, tin with
Jupiter and quicksilver with Mercury.‖ This ―thinking was magical: macrocosmic astrological
influences were all important‖ (Ahern, 1984, p. 149).
Interestingly, even before discovering other esoterically informed Waldorf critics on the
Internet and delving into Steiner‘s doctrine, we were able to pin point our negative
experiences in a letter. About three months after leaving Waldorf the development officer
asked us to engage in an exit interview. I told my husband that I would never sit before
that faculty again but agreed to answer their questions in letter form. Why had we removed
our daughter from Waldorf? This is what we wrote:
February 17, 1999
We feel that a clearer distinction should be made to prospective parents on
the sectarian nature of Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School. It would be helpful if
the institution were more responsible in clarifying the ―mystic Christian‖
character of the school. Had we known that the curriculum and operation of
the school were based exclusively on Rudolf Steiner‘s insight, clairvoyance,
aesthetics, eurocentricity, and religious beliefs (as interpreted by his
disciples) Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School would not have been our choice for
X.
The lack of enthusiasm and inspiration that X demonstrated during her years
at Pleasant Ridge always concerned us. She felt unchallenged during her
school day and expressed it often. Her attitude and frustration played a role
in our decision to take X out of Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School. She is doing
very well at Westby Elementary School. Her demeanor has improved, and she
never cries before or after school, as she used to, but rather looks forward to
her day.
Lack of teacher control in X‘s classroom at Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School was
also troublesome to us. We believe this problem took away much of her
potential in her education at Pleasant Ridge.
Our communications with the faculty and staff in coming to this decision were
as complete as we needed them to be.
Thank you for the opportunity to express our views in our departure.
Yours sincerely,
Sharon Lombard and XX.
Conclusion
Leaving Waldorf was a very difficult time for my family. Our world was turned upside down
and inside out. Although some people have positive experiences with the schools, others
have troubling encounters with the movement. Years ago an ex-Waldorfer observed:
I think most parents get ―attached‖ to their kids being in the Waldorf schools
and they just want to look the other way when something uncomfortable
comes up. Or, they view the teaching as somehow -superior- because it is not
of this ―materialistic‖ world we live in. Especially when a parent starts their
child in the younger grades. By the time the child is in the school for a
number of years, the school has become -so- much a part of their -identity-
that they cannot face the possibility of letting go. It‘s very subtle but one
begins to feel it is more and more difficult to relate to others outside the
Waldorf circle. Eventually I felt I was living on some sort of ―Anthroposophical
island.‖ This alienation, coupled with my troubling questions finally convinced