The Brain as an Instrument of Thinking
One of the very popular beliefs which have originated from materialistic
explanations of the brain functions is that our thoughts, feelings, and will
impulses are the outcome of physiological and chemical processes that are
continually evolving in the brain due to the inflow of a multitude of
stimuli via millions of neurons. Such opinion is similar to the following approach: for example,
someone "is walking along a muddy path and leaving footprints
there which someone coming along later tries to explain. How does he explain
them? By saying that down in the depths of the earth there are forces that
vibrate up and down and thus produce the footprints. The footprints,
however, were not caused by those forces at all, but by me when I walked
there. This is how physiologists today explain that what takes place in the
brain is generated by the brain, and there is indeed something in the
nervous system that corresponds to every thought and idea, every feeling.
Just as my footprints correspond with where I have trodden, so is there
something in the brain that does correspond with every impression
encountered by the soul. But it is the soul that has impressed it upon the
brain. The earth is just as little the organ for my treading or my
footprints, it is just as little what produces them as the brain is the
organ for all kinds of thought or ideation processes. I cannot walk without
the ground, for I cannot walk in the air; I need the ground to walk on. And
the brain is needed for the same reason, not because it produces the soul
impressions but because the soul processes need the firm foundation upon
which to express themselves during the period when the human being lives in
a body between birth and death." [1]
We can imagine the brain as a musical instrument, let's say a grand
piano, which needs to be made from the right materials and in accordance
with the laws of acoustics; also it must be kept in good condition, and
properly tuned to enable the musician to produce music. However,
it is not the piano which produces the music, but the musician. Thus it is
the human soul and spirit which use the brain as their instrument and not
the other way around.
Accordingly “when we wake up in the morning and are awake throughout the
day, then the psychic-spiritual activity which belongs to the thinking is
working all day long upon the brain, and thereby the brain becomes a
reflecting-apparatus. But the brain must first be there; then the
soul-spiritual activity can make little furrows in the brain, or, one might
say, its memoranda and engravings.” [2] This means that
the physical existence of the nerves and sense organs provides the basis for
the soul-spiritual activities of perception and thinking.
Cosmic Forces as Forces of Thinking
The main activities going on in the nerve-sense system are activities of
perceiving and thinking. In the case of perceiving it is obvious that
something of the outer, macrocosmic world enters and it is impressed upon
the human being, the microcosm. Something from the outside world impresses
itself in our organism, and for that reason we talk about sense impressions.
Parallel to this we form concepts
about what we perceive and connect them to suitable perceptions. This is the
activity of thinking. As we all know, human beings have different abilities
with regard to their mental capacities. This is due to the fact that our
ability of thinking is dependent on the nature of the spiritual forces which
enter our head from the spiritual world.
"When perceived physically, man's head appears to be closed above, but,
perceived spiritually, it is open. It is just where there is bone in the
organism that the spirit can enter most easily, and this it does in the form
of rays. Where the dome of skull comes you see rays, sun-like rays,
pouring into him from the spiritual worlds." [3] "Countless varieties of
brain-activity arise from the fact that the brain swims, as it were, in the
spiritual cosmos, and its forces work into the brain." [4]
For that reason in the case of “man, everything depends upon the fact that he not only
takes his nourishment up from the earth whereby he nourishes himself, and
that he supplies his breathing from what surrounds the earth, thus out of
the air – actually is only through this that he lives, thereby he is capable
of becoming a feeling and sensory being – but he also takes in forces from
the whole world and thereby he is a thinking being and only then (for the
first time) actually becomes a complete human being. The human being must be
nourished, must be able to breathe and thereby become a feeling being, and
he must take forces from the universe so as to become thereby a thinking
being." [5]
On the basis of these descriptions we can designate the nature of the
cosmic forces which are active in the head as cosmic
forces of thinking.
Earthly Substances in Our Food
In the explanation of
COSMIC EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCES one can see that the
solid state of the
mineral kingdom came into existence last of all states of physical
substances that are in our environment. The mineral kingdom crystallized out
of the previous fluid state of the Earth in a similar manner to salt
crystallizing out of water. All minerals have a crystalline structure, such
as table salt has. For that reason minerals are called
salts in old
alchemical texts and often also in modern spiritual-scientific literature.
Therefore we can in these texts substitute the word ‘salt’ by the word
‘mineral’.
The main characteristic of a solid substance is that it has an
inherent
form in comparison with water which takes the form of a vessel, or with gas
which fills the whole space in which is placed. This inherent form of solid matter can, of
course, be changed by impact from outside, such as heat, or gas explosion,
or sea waves, etc. Nevertheless it is true that a stone – in comparison with
the constant fluidity and movement of water and air – can keep its form for
thousands of years. This perseverance of the form of substance is typical
for the element earth. Therefore one can conclude that minerals are true
earthly substances.
The earth’s crust is made of minerals which form the basis for the
existence of plants. Plants take up minerals and integrate them into their
structure. “The root (of the plant) is in the soil and contains many salts because salts
are in the soil. And the root clings with its fine rootlets to the soil and
constantly draws salts from it. So the root is the part of the plant which
is particularly connected with the mineral kingdom of the Earth, with the
salts.” [6]
Therefore we can conclude that earthly substances in our food are
minerals in the form of mineral salts – that is, minerals and their
compounds that are dissolved in plant sap. “Salts are usually considered to
be mere accessories, but they play a particularly important part in man’s
life. The most common form, of course, is cooking
salt, but all foodstuffs contain salts." [7]
Nowadays this knowledge has become a part of general nutritional culture;
only the expressions have changed. The conclusion of modern nutritional
science is, that “mineral salts are simple
inorganic chemicals
that are required in nutrition, as nutrients, by all
living organisms. Plants usually obtain their mineral salts from the soil,
while animals and human beings get theirs from their food. Mineral salts
that are needed in tiny amounts are called trace elements." [8]
This means that we are capable of consuming minerals directly from the
mineral kingdom only in very small amounts, and only if these minerals have
such a form that they can dissolve in water (as is the case with table
salt). And those minerals that don’t dissolve in water (e.g. iron, copper,
zinc, etc.) we get by the help of plants or animals. [9]
However, minerals and mineral salts are not the only earthly substances
in our food. As we know food contains also proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
These substances break down in the digestive tract into amino acids, fatty
acids, glycerol, and simple sugars. All these are inorganic molecules
belonging to the earthly realm of existence. In other words, they are
mineral parts of what were before living substances that came into existence
inside living organisms. [10] These earthly substances are absorbed into our
blood and lymph circulation. Although all these inorganic molecules contain
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, the element which gives them form is carbon.
[11] This is evident if we look at the outcome of the burning of wooden
parts of the plants, or even of the liquid coming from the plants (see
picture).
Therefore we can, beside salts and trace elements, point out
carbon as
the key earthly substance in our food. By its tremendous formative capacity
carbon enables creation of a great multitude of chemical compounds which are
present in plant food – not just proteins, fats and carbohydrates but also
the so called
phytochemicals.
In fact, if we look at the twofold
Evolution of Earhly and Cosmic Substances then it should be obvious
that all substances contained in the periodic table of elements
belong to the physical, earthly-mineral world. But inside this group of
substances we can distinguish some which are more earthly than others, such
as in the case of carbon in the plant kingdom and the crystals which enable
the existence of the solid mineral kingdom.
Earthly Substances in Our Nervous System
Although this is not an attempt to make a complete review of all
substances which are necessary for the proper function of our nervous
system, we can single out three types of substances which are coming from
the food and their significant roles they have in the brain and other parts
of the nervous system. [12]
1. Glucose as the main source of energy for the brain cells
Carbohydrates in our food break down into simple sugars. Among them is
glucose, the main source of energy for the function of all cells in our
body. However, in regard to glucose utilization the brain has the leading
position: “Although the human brain represents only 2% of the body weight,
it consumes up to 20% of the energy used by the human body, more than any
other organ.” [13] If we look at the physical properties of sugar, we see
crystals which dissolve in water as happens in the case of table salt. Thus
we can list sugar, including glucose, among the mineral salts which are
essential for the proper functioning of the whole human organism, including
the nervous system.
2. Inorganic compounds as building blocks for synthesis of
neurotransmitters
The transmission of information in the nervous system is happening in the
following way: A nerve impulse is initiated either by a sensory organ or by
another neuron
(nerve cell). It travels along the nerve fibre as a tiny electrical charge.
There is always more than one neuron involved in the transmission of any nerve
impulse. However, there is no physical contact between these neurons. The place
at which the nerve impulse passes from one to another is the synapse (see
picture). The first neuron has minute branches which end with small vesicles,
synaptic knobs, each containing a chemical substance, the neurotransmitter. When
an electric impulse reaches the synaptic knob, the neurotransmitter is released
into the gap between the knob and another neuron which is filled with the
cerebrospinal fluid. In this way the nerve impulse is transmitted to another
neuron.
This means that our nerve system wouldn’t be capable of functioning
without neurotransmitters. And where do these substances came from?
According to science “many neurotransmitters are synthesized from simple and
plentiful precursors such as amino acids, which are readily available from
the diet and only require a small number of biosynthetic steps for
conversion.” [14] Such findings have brought nutritional neuroscientists to
the radical conclusion that “the type of neurotransmitters your neurons make
and release and their ultimate destiny within the brain depend greatly on
what you eat.” [15] This conclusion is in complete accordance with the
statement of spiritual science that “the ordinary digestion in terms of
substance, merely supplies the nerve system, merely the inner construction
of the nerve system, merely the building blocks for the nerve system.”
[16] These building blocks are obviously no longer
living substances, but the mineralised, physical substances from which
all life is removed – as is described in
INDIVIDUALIZATION OF HUMAN
SUBSTANCES – before they are absorbed in the small intestine into the
lymph and blood and later reach the nervous system via blood circulation. [17]
3. Mineral salts as basis for our activity of thinking
In our brain we can find one of the most earthly substances, so-called
brain sand,
“whose function, if any, is unknown” [18] to materialistic science. Contrary
to this spiritual science reveals that “within the brain, ‘sand is
constantly deposited when you bring nutrients into your blood’. This
brain
sand is, as a crystal formation, ‘just as much subject to the forces of the
cosmos’ as the crystals in outer nature. We need this brain sand – it
mediates the intelligence forces of the cosmos to us; for this reason,
‘without brain sand, we would be stupid’, yet we must constantly dissolve it
and build it anew. This brain sand is found in the pineal gland – a
particularly significant organ in the history of animal and human
evolution.” [19]
Therefore “even when (mineral) salts are consumed in tiny quantities,
they not only add flavour but are an extremely important food. We take salt
with our food not only for the pleasant stimulating taste but really
in order that we may be able to think.
The salts [minerals] in food must find their way up
to the brain if we are capable of thinking. The salts are mainly connected
with our thinking. If a person is so ill that all the salt in his food is
deposited in the stomach or intestines and not carried by his blood into the
brain, he becomes feeble-minded and dull-witted.”
[20]
In accordance with all explanations in this nutritional principle we can
conclude that in the case when we look to “the human head, we find its substance
derived entirely from the physical world. During the formation of the human
embryo the substance of the head comes from the parents; and the subsequent
development of the head, and of the whole head and nerve-sense system, depends
for its substance entirely on the earthly-material world. On the other hand,
when we come to the human head we find that something of the highest
spirituality, something that can be called heavenly, is playing in. We see that
the human head could never arise from earthly forces, for the spiritual world
participates with its activity in the head.”
[21]
Our nervous system performs two basic functions: to convey the sense
impressions from the sense organs to the brain and to enable the activity of
thinking. These two activities of the nerve-sense system depend upon the
cooperation of the cosmic forces of thinking and transformed earthly
substances entering our organism via food. Therefore we need to realize that
“in the human head, which is itself a
kind of miniature cosmos, the spiritual world builds up a form out of
earthly substance.” [22] And this form and composition of the human head
constitutes that ground on which the activities of perception and thinking
can unfold in our life on the Earth.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM
