Cosmic Ethers as Cosmic Substances
According to the COSMIC EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCES
there exists the crucial polarity between the
development of earthly and cosmic substances. Thus we have on the
earthly side four elements – fire, air, water and earth – and on the cosmic
side four ethers – warmth ether, light ether, tone or chemical ether and life ether.
From this polarity it is clear that cosmic substances which enter the
human being through the nerve-system and breathing must be cosmic ethers. It
is also logical that cosmic ethers can be in a state of substance or they
can work as an energy, as is also the case with physical substances. In the
case of the cosmic nutritional stream, ethers enter the human body as
substances, and contribute to the building-up of our metabolic-limb system.
To understand the nature and activities of ethers is not easy, for they
are exactly opposite to physical substances. For example, physical
substances are visible, ponderable, and measurable, while etheric substances
are invisible, imponderable, and immeasurable. Physical substances are
subject to the forces of gravity, while etheric substances are subject to
the forces of levity. Also, while physical substances comprise the
dead mineral kingdom, etheric substances enable
life processes in all living organisms.
Recognition of the polarity of cosmic and earthly substances and forces
can be found in several Eastern creation stories. For example, in a Japanese
story there is a description of how out of the primeval unified
universe there occurred the separation of lighter elements, which floated
upwards and formed the high plain of Heaven, while the heavier elements
settled and become the solid Earth.
In recent decades, science also discovered that the universe is not just
an empty space with stars and planets, but that it contains so-called 'dark
matter' and 'dark energy'. According to scientific calculations, they
constitute the majority of the universe. It is estimated that less than five
percent of the universe is ordinary matter; the rest is dark matter and
energy. [1] The existence of these non-physical substances and forces is now
scientific fact, but their nature is veiled in a shroud of mystery. It is
evident that materialistic science is crossing the border into the etheric
realm, but without proper understanding of what is being encountered there.
[2]
Nourishing Through the Sense Organs and Breathing
It is a fact of life confirmed by science that we are continually
replacing old substances in our body with new ones. However,
"when after a definite period of life you find a different substance in
any member of the human organism, then this has never been precipitated out
of the ordinary digestion. The ordinary digestion in terms of substance,
merely supplies the nerve system, merely the inner construction of the nerve
system, merely the building blocks of the nerve system. Through the activity
of the nerve-system, in connection with the breathing, the substances are
then taken up out of the cosmic surroundings in extraordinarily finely
distributed conditions, which are then fitted into the organism by the
nerve-sense organization and, in terms of substance, replace that which is eliminated.
That through which man is again newly built up after a certain period of
life, that comes with the breathing, and even with a fine absorption of the
outer world through the senses, into the human organism. Thus, if one
considers the human being properly, one will have to say from the beginning:
the exchange of substance is the most intimate inner work of the human
organism itself. Participating in the building up of the human being are
both, the rhythmic organism and also the nerve-sense organism."
[3]
Accordingly "we do not merely take up substances through the mouth, but
we also take up materials from the air through the breathing process. In
what we inhale there are contained very finely distributed nourishing
substances. And we live not only from what we eat, but also from
the finely
distributed nourishing substances that are in the air and which we inhale."
[4]
Thus "all substances that the human being has within him are generated by him.
That which the human being takes in (in the form of food) is merely for supporting him, for
igniting him. In truth, the human being generates the substances that he
needs from out of the universe. All substances are in the universe in a very
delicate distribution. Everything is in the universe; iron for instance is
in the universe. Man not only breathes it in, he also gets it into his body
through his eyes and ears. And the iron that man eats is only there for
supporting; he excretes the larger part of it. If man, namely, were not
dependent between birth and death to live upon earth and therewith to also
carry out earthly manipulations, then he would not have to eat at all,
because he could attract all he needs from out of the universe."
[5]
The substances that are distributed in the universe in a very delicate
condition are, of course, the substances in the etheric condition. As is
explained in the COSMIC
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCES any substance found on the Earth or in the
surrounding universe can exist in the seven conditions: in solid, fluid and
gaseous state, and in the state of warmth ether, light ether, sound or
chemical ether, and life ether. This enables us to understand why we feel so
refreshed and rejuvenated after spending a whole day on the coast at the sea
or in some other pristine natural environment, where the quality of the air
and the quality of sense impressions is outstanding. For in the natural
environment cosmic ethers are present in greater measure and these nourish
us on the supersensible level via senses and breathing.
Inflow of Cosmic Ethers through the Endocrine Glands
According to scientific evidence the endocrine glands, with their
hormones, are extremely important for the overall state of the human
organism. One of the common characteristics of these glands is that they are
relatively small, and also that the quantity of hormones which they excrete
is minute; in spite of this they have tremendous effects on metabolic
processes in the body. For example, the
pituitary gland, in cooperation with
the hypothalamus, regulates the activity of most of the other endocrine
glands. It also excretes growth hormone, which has multiple effects; e.g. it
stimulates growth, regulates aspects of metabolism in many organs, and
stimulates protein synthesis. The absence or improper quantity of any
hormone produced by the endocrine glands can cause either death or serious
malfunction of the physical organism.
The sexual glands as the final endocrine glands have the special task of
enabling reproduction of human species. When an egg (provided by the
ovaries) and a sperm (provided by the testes) combine we get the very
beginning of a new physical body.
According to the spiritual-scientific approach, we regard endocrine
glands, with their hormones, as evidence for the existence of the cosmic
nutritional stream. They regulate the activities related to the inflow of
cosmic ethers into our metabolic-limb system. This is the reason why
hormones have such impressive effects on the state of the human body.
"The primary receptive organs of cosmic nutritional stream are the skin, the
sense organs, and the respiratory organs. The ether, streaming in through
our senses, carries light, sound, and life. In the
sphere of our senses we actually inhale warmth; and in this inhaled warmth,
light, sound, and life are contained. Two streams, the warmth which carries
light, sound, and life, and the inhaled air, meet and finally settle in what
science describes as lymph. This cosmic stream carries light, sound, and life as
it descends, and in descending it leaves the light behind in our head where it
becomes our inner light. The sound is left behind to change into the inner
activity of our rhythmic system. The life goes right down into physical
substance, and this is what really fills and nourishes us.
Where in our body do all these processes take place? The keys to
understanding the deeds of substance – the flow of the cosmic nutritional
stream, and the rising up of the earthly nutritional stream – are the
so-called endocrine glands. The hormones which they produce are very
important elements in the household of the human organization." [6]
The Human Body Renewed out of the Universal Ether
"As human beings we eat. In this process, we bring substances from the
outside world into our own organism. However, we also transform these
substances. We start transforming them in our mouths, and continue to do so
as they move through our whole organism. In the process, what we take in
passes over into our whole organism. Furthermore, science tells us that,
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 shedding you can easily observe how the human body constantly loses
matter. In fact, it is well known nowadays that the human being loses matter
in this way all the time, and in fact is completely rebuilt in the span of
about seven years.
For instance, each one of you has a heart. Science tells us that the
physical material of this heart renews itself every seven or eight years.
For all practical purposes, every nine years you get a new heart. You might
think that all the matter that went to build up your heart was gathered bit
by bit from the cabbages, potatoes, and other vegetables, the cherries and
plums and so on that you enjoyed eating over the years. But this is not what
happened. Essentially the heart that you carry in your body has very little to do with any
matter you ate. The heart that you carry today arose, in fact, in a most
mysterious way out of the ether that, over the past seven or eight years,
you have drawn in from the cosmos. Your heart has not been renewed during
this period by physical matter. Your heart renewed itself out of the
cosmos. Your heart and other organs are renewed out of the ether. You did
not remake yourself from the earth at all, but from the cosmos.
Here materialistic conscience – which each of us has to have – will
protest: 'But nevertheless we all ate! We all took in external matter, as a
result of which inner processes took place.' Yes, but these deeper processes
are not as closely related to your deeper human essence as you believe. The
substances that you ate have already been disposed of in the various ways in
which human beings dispose of matter. They have passed through your
organism, but without uniting in any essential way with what you are. They
constituted only a stimulus. We must eat for processes to take place within
us that stimulate us. And insofar as they stimulate or goad us, our etheric
body becomes active – the etheric body that is connected with the cosmos,
not with the earth. What happens to the consumed, digested, metabolized
foods are processes that create a stimulus so that a counterforce – the
etheric process – can arise in you. The matter that enters into me and is
physically transformed stimulates my old heart. But I myself make my new
heart out of the world-ether.
In essence we human beings regenerate ourselves out of the cosmos. Of
course, we do not find the physical materials that we can then find in the
heart in the cosmos. This is because they are so diluted, so subtle that
they are not detectable by physical means. They are etheric. The dense
matter of the heart that appears at a certain age has condensed from the
universal ether." [7]
In another description of the same process there is the explanation of
how the invisible etheric substances condense into visible tissues of our
body. "The substance of the metabolic-limb system – the system which brings
together the processes of digestion and nourishment, and the inner
combustion which enables a man to move – is not derived from the Earth.
Improbable as it may sound, you bear within your metabolic-limb man
something which is not of earthly origin but consists wholly of substance
from the world of the spirit. You may say: 'But I can see my legs; they are
physically perceptible, which they would not be if they consisted of
spiritual substance.' This objection is quite justified, but there is
something more to be considered.
Your real legs are indeed spiritual throughout; your real arms too; but
the material for them is provided by your head. The head is the organ which
fills spirit arms, spirit hands, spirit legs, spirit feet, with substance;
and this substance penetrates into the spirituality of the limbs and of the
digestive organs. So that something which in reality belongs entirely to the
spiritual world is permeated, flooded, with physical matter by the head.
For in reality we go about under the imprint of higher worlds, with spirit
legs, spirit arms, and it is only the head that fills them with physical
matter. [8]
On the other hand the forces, the activity, for all that makes up the
metabolic-limb man are drawn from the physical world. If you make a step
forward or lift an arm, the mechanism involved, and even the chemical
processes that take place in moving an arm or leg, or the chemical processes
in the digestive organs – all this activity is earthly. So that in your
limbs you bear invisible substance, but forces drawn from earthly life.
In our limbs we are built up entirely from heavenly substance; but the forces
playing into this heavenly substance during our life on Earth are earthly
forces – gravitation and other physical and chemical forces all belonging to
the Earth." [9]
We need to keep in mind that in the whole visible human organism we have
everywhere the interplay of the physical and the etheric body – as is the
case with plants. If we focus on these two bodies of the
FOURFOLD HUMAN BEING we
will find that in the nerve-sense system (in the head), the physical body is
stronger than the etheric, and in the metabolic-limb system (abdomen and
limbs) the etheric body is stronger than the physical. If it were not the
case there would be no growth and regeneration of the body as we can witness
in the case of plants. And as plants take in mineral substances from the
earth, we also receive them from the outer world. However, these substances
are dominant in our head, while in the lower part are dominant invisible
etheric substances which build the organs of metabolic system and limbs.
[10] These organs and tissues are visible to us only
due to the ‘mineral pigments’ that permeate our etheric body.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM
