MAN AS A BEING OF BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT
Anthroposophical spiritual science identifies in man the existence of three physiological
systems which perform very specific tasks in the human organism:
[1]
- The nerve-sense system (senses, nerves, brain) which enables
transfer of perceptions from the senses to the brain and their processing in
it.
- The rhythmic system (lungs and blood circulation) which regulates all
rhythmical activities in the body.
- The metabolic-limb system (organs bellow the diaphragm and muscles)
which enables nutrition (digestion and the distribution of nutritive
substances throughout the body) and movement of the limbs.
The reason why the metabolic system and limbs are put together can be
seen in the fact that “the metabolism is more lively when the limbs are
active.” [2] This means that both are involved in movement; in the first
case we have the inner movement of nutritive substances, while in the second
the movement of limbs.
Although we arrived with this division into three distinct systems
we need to be aware that “these three organisms work into one another.
We may say that the organism of nerves and senses has its principal
activity in the head. But the whole human being is, to a certain extent,
functionally head. And the same may be said of the other systems, that
of the rhythmic organism and that of the trunk, limbs, and metabolic
activities.” [3]
But spiritual science doesn’t stop at this. Because it “aims
everywhere for wholeness of view, it must also build the bridge between
the bodily constitution on the one side and the life of soul on the
other. A really penetrating study of human nature is able to build a
bridge between man’s external constitution and what it unfolds, through
self-consciousness, in his inner life. As a rule no such bridge is
built, or only very inadequately built, particularly in the science
current today.” [4] In opposition to this spiritual science confirms
that in “describing the realm of consciousness that is dependent upon
our bodily organization, one is correct in membering it into mental
picturing (thinking), feeling, and willing.
The bodily counterparts of the soul element of mental picturing are
to be found in the processes of the nervous system, with its extensions
into the sense organs on the one hand and into the internal organization
of the body on the other. Just as one must relate mental picturing to
nerve activity, so one must also relate feeling to that life rhythm
which is centred in the breathing activity and is connected with it. In
doing so one must bear in mind that one must follow the breathing
rhythm, with all that is connected with it, right into the most
peripheral parts of our organization. One need only see the physiology
of the breathing rhythm in the right light and one will arrive at a
comprehensive recognition of the statement: The soul has feeling
experiences by basing itself upon the breathing rhythm in the same way
it bases itself, in mental picturing, upon nerve processes.
And relative to willing one finds that it is based, in a similar
way, upon metabolic processes. Here again, one must include in one’s
study all the pertinent ramifications and extensions of the metabolic
processes within the entire organism. Just as, when something is
mentally pictured, a nerve process occurs upon which the soul becomes
conscious of its mental picturing, and just as, when something is felt,
a modification of the breathing rhythm takes place through which a
feeling arises in the soul; so, when something is willed, a metabolic
process happens, which is the bodily foundation for what is experienced
in the soul as willing.” [5]
THE RHYTHMIC SYSTEM AS THE INNER HEALER OF MAN
The threefold division of the human nature presents the starting point
for many insights into the relationships to three fundamental spheres of
human activities:
- relationships to all forms of learning and education which contribute
to formation of our worldview and enable us, if we decide so, to work
intentionally on our own spiritual development;
- relationships to all forms of healing therapies and arts which enable
us to maintain the balance among numerous polarities of human constitution;
- relationships to food production and preparation and to all other forms
of human work which provide things and services for our life on the Earth.
Nowadays when we are faced with the modern epidemic of illnesses it is
of utmost importance to became aware of the source of healing inside us.
But for this purpose “we have to become inwardly flexible; then we can
correctly discover these three members of the human organization and how
they work together to create a healthy equilibrium. Then we also learn to
recognize how a disturbance of this equilibrium leads to all kinds of
illnesses and to discriminate, in a living way, between the causes of health
and illness in human life.” [6]
It is essential that we are aware that in the human being the three
worlds – physical, soul, and spiritual worlds – meet and interact with each
other. Even more important is to be able to
distinguish three kinds of laws that are governing these three realms of
existence. A real education or a real nutrition, or “a real medicine can
therefore only exist when it penetrates into a knowledge which embraces man
in respect to all three – in respect to body, soul and spirit.”
[7] For
“processes of illness and health are continually taking place in the human
organism, and everything a person does or is guided to do has its effect
upon these processes.” [8] And it is not just what
a person does that has an
effect, but also what (s)he feels and thinks. Therefore it is of crucial
importance to keep in mind that everything has an effect on a person –
either it is an activity we perform or substance that we take in through
breathing or through skin or in the form of medicine or food.
How can we then distinguish between the processes of illness and health?
For this purpose we need to know that “the forces which build man up, which
cause growth and the process of nutrition do not bring him to the condition
where he can feel and think. On the contrary, to be able to feel and think,
something in the organism must be destroyed.” [9] These breakdown processes
are entirely normal because our body is not just build up once and stays
forever the same, but is continuously renewing itself. And “just as we take
matter in, we are also continuously losing matter to the outside. Just think
for instance of your nails and your hair. Starting from this you can easily
observe how the human body constantly loses matter and is completely rebuilt
in the span of about seven years.” [10] This renewal is the outcome of
continuous interaction of the upper and lower systems with their polar
processes of breakdown and upbuilding which needs to work inside the limit of
a healthy balance. In reality, these processes are the source of constant
small irregularities which “are continuously taking place everywhere in the
human organism, and these are brought into balance by the rhythmic
processes.” [11]
Accordingly, the processes of illness are those which seriously
exceed their lawful range of action, while the processes of health are
the same processes which stay where they have to be and are evolving in
proper rhythms. For in the human being there is nothing that is not
necessary if it works at the right time in its right place. And the
system that takes care for this is the rhythmic system. “In fact,
the
whole rhythmic system is a doctor” [12] because it mediates in a
rhythmical manner between two polar systems which represent two
different worlds – the spiritual world above and the physical world
below. Therefore we can identify the rhythmic system as the healing
system. “This rhythmic system is the mediator between the cosmic and the
earthly in man.” [13] And “just as plant and animal life, in its
external form, takes its course rhythmically, so does the life of the
physical body. The heart beats rhythmically, the lungs breathe
rhythmically, and so forth. All this proceeds so rhythmically because it
is set in order by higher spiritual forces, by the wisdom of the world.”
[14]
If we want to really grasp all this we should be quite clear that
“our powers of understanding and our faculty of judgment can never come
about through expert knowledge in some particular branch of science, but
only through the all-embracing knowledge of the spirit. The construction
of concepts and representations necessary for spiritual science, and
peculiar to it, does not qualify us to become experts in any particular
sphere, but it gives us the power of judging” [15] anything that affects
our being.
The picture of the threefold human being constitutes the foundation
for the work of teachers, doctors, various therapists, and cooks. It
also enables the farmers and people processing and preparing food to
understand why the quality of food is so important for the wellbeing of
the people who eat it. For if we want to improve the health of the
people we need the participation of teachers, artists, doctors,
therapists, farmers, cooks, bakers and other food producers with the aim
to support and stimulate the forces of the inner
healer of people. This will be truly holistic health care that
will serve all three members of the human constitution – the body, soul
and spirit – in the most suitable and efficient manner.
