The Nature of Life Energy in Our Food
The main source of food for animals and humans is plants. Plants have a
physical and an etheric body. The etheric body is also called the life body,
because it is the source of all life functions. One can see the innate
nature of the life body if one observes the plant world. Plants can grow,
reproduce, and they have an amazing capability to regenerate themselves.[1]
Plants also "remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, using carbon for their
bodies and eliminating as waste oxygen of fresh air," [2] thus maintaining
the life supporting atmosphere of the Earth.
Plants grow out of mineral earth; although they thrive best in the living
soil, they can grow also high up in mountains and in deserts where is very
little organic matter present in the ground. Even the fertile soil contains
only a few percent of humus; the majority is mineral substances such as
clay, sand, silt, etc. [3] Thus we can say that dead mineral substances are
the basis for growth of plants; in this process they integrate into
themselves minerals and with the help of sun create carbohydrates, fats and
proteins which serve the nutritional needs of animals and humans alike.
Plants thrive in diverse natural and climatic conditions; they never become
ill because of inner causes – as is the case with animals and human beings.
They can become ill only because of improper outer causes, often by the help
of human beings who breed them contrary to natural laws and force them to
grow in unnatural, artificially created environments. [4]
Wherever we have so-called 'wild nature' we encounter vibrant, abundant
plant life which provides the ground for a thriving life of extraordinarily
diverse animal forms. Therefore we
can say that the plant kingdom is the 'tree of life' of the natural world!
The quality and strength of the etheric forces in plants are dependent on
the quality of seeds and soil, climatic conditions, and upon the various
methods of growing. The quality and strength of the life forces in our food
can be observed indirectly from the following characteristics:
- The germinating power of the seeds which manifest in
the ability of plants to reproduce from their own seeds [5]
- The vitality of plants to keep healthy and to resist the dynamic changes in weather and other outer conditions
- The amount of vitamins and trace minerals (so-called primary nutrients)
- The amount of enzymes, and other
phytochemicals (so-called secondary nutrients)
- The ability to store fresh foods with minimal loss of vitality [6]
Seven Life Processes of the Human Organism
What we have in common with plants is our etheric body. This body is
constantly active in us, keeping us alive throughout various periods of our
existence. "If we look more closely at this life, it also proves to be
differentiated. There is not just one life process. First of all there is
breathing, a manifestation of life necessary to all living things. Every
living organism must enter into a breathing relationship with the external
world. The second process we can distinguish is warming. This occurs along
with breathing, but it is a separate process. Warming, the inner process of
warming something through, is the second of the life-sustaining processes.
The third process that sustains life is nourishing. So here we have three
ways in which life comes to us from without: breathing, warming, nourishing.
The outer world is part of each of these. As long as we are considering the
life processes in their earthly aspects, something must be there to be
breathed – in the case of humans, and also animals, that substance is air.
Similarly, we need food to nourish us.
At this stage, the life processes take us deeper into the internal world.
We now find processes that reform what has been taken in from outside –
processes that transform and internalise it. The purely inner process that
is the basis of the reforming of what we take in from outside us can be seen
to be fourfold. Following the process of nourishing, the first internal
process is the process of secretion, of elimination. When the nourishment we
have taken in is distributed to our body, this is already the process of
secretion; through the process of secretion it becomes part of our organism.
The process of elimination does not just work outward (when we excrete
urine, sweat, etc, out of the body); it also separates out
that part of our nourishment that is to be absorbed into us. Excretion and
absorption are two sides of the processes by which organs of secretion deal
with our nourishment. One part of the secretion performed by organs of
digestion separates out nutriments by sending them into the organism.
Whatever is thus secreted into the organism must remain connected with the
life processes, and this involves a further process which we will call
maintaining. But for there to be life, it is not enough for what is taken in
to be maintained, there also must be growth.
Every living thing depends on a process of inner growth: a process of
growth, taken in the widest sense. Growth processes are part of life; both
nourishing and growth are part of life.
And, finally, life on earth includes reproducing the whole being; the
process of growth only requires that one part produce another part.
Reproduction produces the whole individual being and is a higher process
than mere growth. There are no further life processes beyond these seven.
Life divides into seven definite processes." [7]
In the first three life processes we are dealing with an inflow of outer
life into our body. The first two processes – warming and
breathing – belong to the COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM.
The process of warming refers to the entrance of warmth ether through our sense organs and
associated nerves. The next life process, nourishing, belongs to the
EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM. As you can see in the
CREATION OF HUMAN PROTEIN,
these two nutritional streams work together with the aim of
enabling the formation of proteins inside our body.
The main organs which are active in the life process of secretion are the
endocrine glands (which serve as the doors for the entrance of the cosmic
nutritional stream into the metabolic system) and the liver (with its
multiple secretory functions which play very significant roles in metabolic
processes). The last three life processes – maintaining, growing, and
reproducing – encompass metabolic activities on the level of cells, thus
providing and sustaining a suitable physical vehicle for the human being to
live an active life on Earth.
All these life processes belong to the anabolic, building-up processes
[8] of our organism which enable our body to grow from
a fertilized egg into an adult human being and later on to constantly
regenerate. These life processes are stimulated to a great extent by the
intake of food into our organism.
Vital Forces in Food Stimulate Life Processes of Our Body
Life processes are stimulated by the amount of life energy in our food.
Although the amount of vitamins,
enzymes,
antioxidants, and other
phytochemicals are a good indication of the vitality of the plants,
life energy should not be confused with these material substances discovered
by science. These substances namely have chemical formulas and therefore
belong to the mineral kingdom. But behind these chemical structures are
active etheric substances and forces. These are the true source of the great
impacts of vitamins, enzymes, etc. [9]
If one constantly eats food with weak life forces, one becomes progressively
weaker. If one eats food with strong life forces, one develops more energy,
under the condition that one can receive them in suitable manner. We should
not forget that one needs to be capable of properly managing all substances
and forces which enter through eating, otherwise one can get sick. [10]
This means that either too little or too much life force can lead to health
problems. As the serious lack of life forces leads to illness, so too "the
surplus of life forces leads to illness." [11] Health
is the question of balance between outer influences and our inner power of
transformation and establishment of suitable balance.
We also need to know that the life energy which is present in our food is not taken
directly into our own etheric body, because "in the whole intestines a very important thing takes
place for the human organism, an extraordinarily important thing. This
extraordinarily important thing is this, that everything which passes
through the stomach into the intestines must be killed, and when it then
comes into the lymph glands and the blood it must be enlivened again. That
is the very most important thing that one must understand that the human
being at first must kill, and then again re-enliven, the nourishment he
takes up into himself. The life from outside, taken up directly into the
human being, is not of any use within the human being. Everything that man
takes in, he must kill through his own activity and then again re-enliven.
This one has to know. Ordinary science does not know this and therefore it
does not know that the human being has the power of life within himself.
Just as he has muscles, bones, and nerves within himself, thus he also has
an enlivening power, a body of life-forces within himself."
[12] In other words, the human
being has an etheric body within himself.
The process of 'killing' means the separation of etheric and physical
parts of food substances. "When we eat plants we absorb not only their
chemical constituents, not only the actual substances of the plant, but also
the etheric life forces; but we must destroy them completely during the
process of nutrition. When feeding on a living substance it is necessary for
man to kill it completely within himself. He must therefore extract the
etheric from the plant substance." [13] The outcome of
this activity is that we obtain pure mineral substance – that is, dead mineral
substance that we absorb into the organism.
The process of 'enlivening' means the permeation of the mineral substance
which has entered into blood and lymph circulation with our own etheric
forces. In this way we get living substances which are capable of serving
life processes in our body. [14]
It is crucial to overcome the widespread materialistic notion of how we
get energy – either as 'fuel', or through 'charging our batteries'. Here we
see that we do not get energy directly from the life energy of plants or
animals, but through our activity of overcoming the
vital energy of a plant or an animal. As our muscles can be
strengthened by overcoming the resistance offered by the world – either by
fighting an opponent, or by overcoming of gravity, or by any other physical
activity – so our digestive 'muscles' can be strengthened by overcoming the
resistance of the etheric forces present in our food. For "the organism is a
relationship of activities. The essence of the organism
lies in action, not in substance. The organization is not a relationship of
substance, it is an activity." [15]
For complementary perspectives see:
♦ LIVING PROCESS OF INNER 'COMBUSTION'
♦ NUTRITION vs MOVEMENT
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
This fundamental nutritional law explains the reason why
natural food
with stronger etheric forces is promoting our vitality and why junk food
with very low etheric forces is weakening people and making them sick. In
fact, people in affluent societies have lost their healthy eating instincts
to such an extreme degree that they can eat food which is almost dead in
regard to the amount of life forces. However, because it still retains
strong stimulating effects they still enjoy it.
♣ See FOOD vs STIMULANTS
for the explanation of the essential differences between nourishing and
stimulating effect of the food.
In DEVELOPMENT OF NEW EATING 'INSTINCTS'
you can find the description of how we can enhance our sensitivity to the
existence of life forces in food we consume. However, if we want to develop
such a skill, we need to eat living food. This we cannot do if we accept the
one-sided approach of modern science which provides nutritional information
in the form of the list of ingredients, for there is no entry for the amount
of life forces in the food!? This is not something the modern nutritional
science has yet recognised as real; the dominant approach today is talking
about this or that material substance in food which is causing this or that
to the human organism. [16] If we want to provide ourselves with vital food
before we develop our own ability to perceive it, we need to know which
methods of food production contribute to the strengthening or to the
weakening of the life forces in the food and then on this basis choose the
food.
Methods which contribute to the weakening of life
forces (in various degrees):
- Use of hybrid varieties of plants (especially those which cannot
reproduce anymore from their own seeds) [17]
- Growing plants with the help of
artificial mineral
fertilizers and chemical
pesticides
- Use of genetically modified organisms
- Improper storage, including careless storage in domestic fridges:
half-wilted leafy vegetables, softened root vegetables, overripe fruits, etc.
- Use of old flours (i.e., flours milled months before their use) for
making bread and other products made from flours
- Overcooking of vegetables and regular use of leftovers
- Eating ready-made meals, which needs only to be reheated before the
meal
Methods which contribute to the strengthening or
preserving of
life forces (in various degrees):
- Use of good quality seeds: traditional seeds , organic seeds, open
pollinated varieties [18]
- Growing plants in natural (biodynamic/organic) way
- Use of foods grown in the wild (so-called wild food)
- Use of fresh, seasonal, and local foods (providing that the growing
methods are natural).
- Use of freshly peeled (only if necessary) and cut fruit and vegetables
- Use of freshly ground flours for making bread and other products made
from flours
- Eating freshly prepared/cooked meals
- Including some raw foods in the daily meals [19]
WARNING: You always have to put the above
practical dietary instructions inside the framework of
GENERAL NUTRITIONAL
GUIDELINES with the aim to know their limits when looking for a solution
of a specific nutritional problem. You also need to be familiar with
THE ROLE OF NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES
with the aim to avoid any one-sided conclusions.
