As it is described in FOURFOLD HUMAN BEING
“man consists of physical
body, life or
ether body, and
astral body,
and the ‘I’ lives within these three human bodies as the inmost part of
essential human nature.”
[1] We cannot properly understand what distinguish
us from the rest of the living beings without the knowledge of our ‘I’.
Before we proceed with the description of some basic functions of human
‘I’ or ego we
need to be aware that “the invisible nature of man, his ego, his astral
body, his etheric body, work through his visible nature, so what is not
manifest works through what is manifest. However, the manner in which
what is not evident works through what is evident is very complicated.
But if we work our way bit by bit through the various parts of this
complicated process, and place them all together, we shall, in the end,
attain an overall view of the being of man. Even this, though, will
always remain incomplete, for the being of man is infinitely complex.
But at least we can gain a certain basic knowledge of human nature as a
valid foundation for self-knowledge.” [2]
Blood as a Physical Instrument of the Ego-Organization
We can start with the recognition that “man is easily inclined in
accordance with the scientific results of his time to grasp his organism
quite materialistically. Even if not always in theory, nonetheless the
practical procedures that are undertaken (in relation to the body) have more
or less the unconscious thought behind them that the human organism more or
less consists of the physical body and the chemical materials as they
interchangeably work upon each other. (In reality) the physical body as it stands before us is an
expression for all man’s parts, also for the invisible members of man’s
nature.
This physical body does, to be sure, consist of the same chemical
materials which are spread out in nature. But the human being has higher
members. Already the next part of the human being is supersensible; it has a
higher reality than the physical body. The etheric body stands fundamentally
behind the physical body; throughout the whole life it is a fighter against
the disintegrating of the physical body. The nerve system is the expression
of the astral body. Here the astral body is the motivator, the constructor.
We can imagine that just as the clock or the machine are constructed by a
watchmaker or a mechanic, thus the nerves are also constructed by the astral
body. And the peculiar construction of the human blood circulatory system,
of the activity of the blood, is the external expression of the ego-bearer,
the bearer of the consciousness of self. Thus also the physical human body
in a certain sense is four-membered:
- The sense organs are purely physical;
- the glands (that is, those members within physical body that
serve for nourishment, reproduction, and life in the general sense) are the
expression of the etheric body;
- the nerve system is the expression of the astral body;
- and the blood system is the expression of the ego.” [3]
The member that makes us human is “the bearer of the ego, the
consciousness of self. Through this, man is the crown of creation; through
this he rises above the things of the earth which surround him.”
[4] This
means, that our ‘I’ – the spiritual core of our being – enables us to be
aware of our own individual existence and that we can reflect about our own
activities. The presence of ‘I’ enables that I am aware of myself as a
separate being in relation to the rest of the world. This is possible
because of the existence of the highly developed brain with associated sense
organs which enable me to perceive the outer world in manifold ways.
[5] “In
ordinary life this process is such that each influence transmitted by means
of the nerves inscribes itself in the blood, as on a tablet, and in doing so
records itself in the instrument of the ego. (For example), when we have a
colour impression, which we receive through the eye, it passes into the
optic nerve, images itself upon the ‘tablet’ of the blood, and we then feel
what we express as a fact when we say: I see red.” [6]
Of course, this is a supersensible process, because for our waking
consciousness we need the cooperation of the ego and the astral body,
but this cooperation would not be possible without the existence of
blood circulation and nervous system. And these would not exist without
the basis provided by cooperation of the etheric and the physical body.
In this way “man stands before us with three invisible members (etheric
body, astral body, ego) and one visible member (physical body). These
always work with one another and in one another. All work upon each
single one and each single one works upon all the others.” [7]
CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS EGO-ORGANIZATION
Now we can proceed with the observation that “it is more or less
known to everyone that the instrument of the so-called higher
soul-activities is, in certain respect, in the brain – that these higher
soul-activities are directed by the organs of the brain. Furthermore, it
is recognised that the more unconscious soul-activities are directed
from the spinal cord – that is, those soul-activities in which very
little deliberation interposes itself between the reception of the
external impression and the action which follows it.” [8]
Out of the spinal cord are branching numerous nerves which belong to the
autonomic nervous system
– that is, the nerves which play an important role in the
autonomous regulation of the metabolic processes
which sustain basic life functions of our organism. But these nerves do
not convey to us what is happening in our body; on the contrary “everything that we live through in our inner organisation remains below
our consciousness; for it would, indeed, be terribly disturbing to us if
we were, for example, to share consciously in our whole process of
nutrition. This is kept back from our consciousness by means of the
autonomous nervous system. [9] Only when is
not in order does something result which we may call a ‘glimmering
through from the one side to the other’. This takes place when some
irregularity in the activity of our digestive organs expresses itself in
our consciousness in feelings of discomfort. In this case we have a
raying into the consciousness, although very obscure, of the internal
life of the human being.” [10]
How is it possible that in this case the nerves perform the opposite
role as they do in the head? The answer is in the role played by “the
ego-nature of man, that component we call our ego. This ego-nature is,
of course, entirely supersensible; it is the most supersensible part we
have as yet acquired, but it works through the physical. The ego works
in our physical being chiefly through the nervous system radiating from the
solar
plexus. This system is the actual point of contact for real
ego-activity. This is not a contradiction of the fact that when we begin
to see ourselves spiritually, we have to seek the centre of the ego in
the head. Since the ego-component of the human being is supersensible,
the point at which we experience our ego is not the same as the point at
which it chiefly works in us (in our body).
Certainly we can say that the ego distributes itself over the whole
body. But its main point of contact, where it particularly intervenes in
the formative element of the human organism, is the
solar plexus. A
better expression would be the system of
ganglia, because it is a
process that lives in the subconscious and works in this system of
ganglia. Since the system of ganglia plays its part in the circulation
of blood as well, this does not contradict the fact that the ego
expresses itself in the blood. The exact meaning of everything that is
said must be considered. It is one thing to say: The real ego intervenes as a formative force in the whole human organism
through the solar plexus. [11] But something else is meant when we say:
The blood with its circulation is an expression of the ego in the human
being. The nature of the human being is truly complicated.”
[12]
Now it can be evident that there exists a double nature of the core
member of human being. “What we look upon as a
conscious activity of the ego is after all only one part of man’s being;
below the threshold of our consciousness there are processes which occur
in the subconsciousness, and which are held back from our consciousness,
by means of the autonomous nervous system. These processes which take
place below the level of consciousness have also a certain kind of
connection with our ego. Thus, out of the unconscious, an
ego-organisation arises to meet the conscious ego-organisation. Man is
thus divided, as it were, into two parts: from one direction the
conscious ego-organisation works into the organism, and from the other
there flows into man the unconscious ego-organisation.”
[13]
This duality of human ego is evident also from the structure of the
blood circulation. In anatomical books it is divided into systemic (also
called great circulation or body circulation) and pulmonary circulation. If we leave
aside pulmonary circulation which main role is to enliven the blood with the
power of oxygen, then we can see the twofold division of the body circulation:
- the upper circulation provides blood to the neck and the brain
- the lower circulation provides blood to the inner organs and the limbs
Thus we can see how in the upper part of the human organism the
conscious ego-organization opens to the world outside via the brain ,
while in the lower part the subconscious ego-organization works via the
autonomous nervous system inside our trunk. And while in the upper part
the incoming world is impressed into my spirit via blood as a thought
picture, the existence of the physical organism enables me to feel
myself within the boundary of my body. Thus I am conscious of my
own existence.
The knowledge of the double nature of human ego-organization is
crucial if we want to properly understand any question of nutrition,
because the majority of nutritional processes are happening in the
subconscious part of our organism. On the other hand, there are many
nutritional choices which are or can be done consciously – that is, in
the light of knowledge provided by an effort of our own ‘I’.
