The nature of the human being is twofold. On the one hand man has a physical body with its sense organs which enable him to perceive the physical part of reality. On the other hand man is a supersensible being due to the fact that he forms ideas about things he perceives, that he imbues his perceptions and concepts with feelings of sympathy or antipathy, and that he has impulses of will in relation to the world around him.
Due to the dominant materialistic spirit being nowadays a more or less common experience – “when we encounter a fellow human being – our conscious impression of him is really an entirely materialistic one. We tell ourselves – not aloud of course, and perhaps not even as a conscious thought, but on a deeper level of awareness – ‘This is a person made of flesh and blood, composed of earthly substances.’ And we say the same of animals and plants. But this attitude is justified only insofar as the mineral substances we face in a human being, plant, or animal are concerned.
If we look at human beings purely from the standpoint of their external form, we don’t really ‘see’ the outer form, we don’t actually confront it with physical perception, for this outer form consists mostly of fluid – it can be up to ninety percent filled with water. [1] What your physical eyes perceive is the mineral element that fills out the structure. You see whatever the person has absorbed from the external mineral world. You do not see the being who did the absorbing, who united with the mineral element. Hence, when we encounter another human being, we speak correctly only if we say to ourselves: ‘What stands before me are material particles that this individual’s spirit-form has stored and gathered, thereby making something invisible visible.’ Actual human beings are invisible, truly invisible. We see only the mineral element in people; the real individuals are supersensible beings, hence invisible.” [2]
In the case of modern scientists, a one-sided approach focusing solely on material structures and physical substances is prevalent, whilst at the same time they are incapable of recognising the inner soul-spiritual life of man as something in its own right – as something with its own special qualities which are not the results of its connections with specific physical parts of our being. “Outer science presents modern consciousness with a picture of the human being based on anatomy and physiology – and on the direct sensory observation – and says that it is the truth about the human nature. But we must become able to look at a human being in such a way that we perceive the concrete-spiritual being, along with bodily aspects, in every fibre. We must be able to see the spiritual element in every single manifestation of the life within us.” [3]
Fundamental to a holistic approach is the recognition of the existence of a non-physical part of the human being, usually referred to as ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’. These words have different meanings for various people. In spiritual science they are characterised in no end of ways; they are looked at from as many different standpoints as possible. But we need to start with the following description:
Although there is a difference between soul and spiritual activities they have something in common: both are non-physical, supersensible activities of human beings. Therefore we can say: “Man is a twofold being. On the one side, we have man’s physical, bodily organization which is connected to the surrounding environment. What constitutes the outside world and dwells out there in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, also constitutes us human beings in the physical, corporeal sense. In a way we are its concentration, elevated to a higher level, and figuratively one could say that we are the crown of creation. In the physical, bodily sense we are a confluence of the effects of forces and substances occurring outside and appearing before us through our sense perceptions.
On the other side, we have our inner life. We have our will, our feeling, our thinking and our conceptual capability. When we reflect upon ourselves, we can observe our own will, feeling and thinking, and permeate these with what we call our beliefs, moral and other ideals. Here, we arrive at what may be termed the man of soul and spirit. This term may easily lead to misunderstandings, but it must be used. We cannot manage to understand the human being if we do not turn the gaze of our soul on one hand to this soul-spiritual human being, and on the other to the physical, corporeal man.” [4]
In spiritual science there exists many diverse approaches to the essential nature of the human being – including threefold and fourfold division of the human being presented on this website – but the recognition of the twofold nature of man is a most important insight if one wants to overcome one-sided materialistic picture of human being. “We understand the human being only if we place him in the world not merely as a being of nature, but as a spiritual being.” [5] Without recognition of the polarity between physical man and man of soul and spirit we cannot hope to fully understand our own organism. And without such holistic understanding we cannot solve any of the riddles of human existence, including those related to nutrition.
Thus we need to begin any holistic investigation of the human being with the recognition that his nature is twofold.
Although with our physical being we are part of the natural kingdoms, this doesn’t make us yet human. Only by virtue of the supersensible part of our being are we truly human.
NOTES
