POLARITY OF ORGANIC LIFE AND LIFE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
One of the most important polarities in the human being is the polarity
between the organic processes of growth, maintenance and regeneration of his
physical body, and his inner life of consciousness, that is his activities of
perception, sensation and reason.
There are two organs which manifest this polarity: liver and brain.
The liver is the organ which of all human organs has the greatest power
of regeneration: it can grow back to its normal size even if three
quarters of its mass is destroyed. Other organs and body tissues can
only be regenerated by slow ongoing replacement of
old cells with new ones. We can designate these unconscious processes of renewal as human
organic life.
On the other side we have the brain. Here we find nerve cells which have lost the
ability to regenerate. [1] The brain with its associated sense organs is the seat of
mental activity and sensory perception. In spiritual science these activities are
characterised as human 'spiritual life' or as
conscious activities.
If we look at a newborn baby, we can see that these two
organs are the most dominant. [2] The liver is the largest organ in the
trunk. This is not surprising because the child's main activity is to sleep and grow.
It can be also seen that the head of a baby is very large in relation to the
rest of the body. This makes sense if we know that a child has very important
tasks in his waking life: he needs to get to know the world around him, and he
needs to learn to speak and think. For this purpose he uses his sense organs of
vision, hearing, taste and smell, as well as his brain – all of them found in
the head.
The polarity between organic and spiritual life is expressed in the
following manner: By day we are awake in our head and our conscious life
is very active. Even if we don't move a lot, we feel tired in the
evening. Then we go to sleep and lose our consciousness. However, in the
morning we feel rested and refreshed. This is the effect of organic
processes of regeneration in the body active while we sleep.
[3]
We become tired because our conscious activities of perception, sensation, and
reason cause destructive processes in our body – they stimulate
breaking-down processes. These processes are an integral part of our
organism, but they need to be kept in balance with up-building, regenerative
processes. This balance is achieved by means of rhythmical exchange of waking and
sleeping, by breathing and by rhythmical intake of food.
"The chief characteristic of ordinary thinking
is that it injures the nervous system, and above all, the brain; it
destroys something in the brain. Every thought means that a minute
process of destruction takes place in the cells of the brain (neurons).
For this reason sleep is necessary for us, in order that this process of
destruction may be made good; during sleep we restore what during the
day was destroyed in our nervous system by thinking." [4]
ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOOD AND STIMULANTS
Food enters into the digestive tract where it is gradually broken down before being
absorbed. [5] Already these activities of food
decomposition set into motion numerous metabolic activities associated with the
digestive system. After food substances enter the blood and lymph circulation
this stirs up an even larger number of metabolic processes which are essential
for the maintenance and functions of our whole body. In all this the liver is having
an indispensable role.
We already mentioned the exceptional capacity of regeneration that
the liver possesses. We can see this ability in the kingdom of plants
and some lower animals which can grow a lost limb or tail. This ability
of the liver becomes more understandable when we find out that the liver
is the ‘seat’ of the life forces in the human body, the forces which
enable growth, renewal, and maintenance of the cells and tissues in the
living organism. And the intake of food has the major impact on the
functions of the liver – that is, on its role to maintain life processes
in the human organism.
In comparison with this, stimulants can be absorbed directly through the skin, sense organs
and breath, or even injected into the blood. If taken through the mouth,
they are not broken down in the way food is; all they need is to be
dissolved in bodily fluids. Then they are absorbed through the walls of
the digestive tract into the bloodstream. Stimulants work through
changing our brain chemistry; they have a stimulating effect on our
state of consciousness. [6] This is evident in the
case of drugs like heroin, cocaine, etc., which change human
consciousness to a dramatic degree. But there are numerous more or less
subtle types of stimulants, all of them capable of affecting our brain
chemistry. This is the reason why they are so attractive and why people
become easily addicted to them. But the price of addiction is that it
causes our physical body to become too exhausted. If stimulants are used
to an excessive degree then we need a lot of life forces to repair the
damage done to the physical body.
Substances with a stimulating effect on our nervous system are
minerals. Often these are in the form of white powder or in the form of
pills or tablets. There are a few exceptions, like alcohol [7], coffee,
and tobacco, which we consume as liquids or smoke. However, scientists
have also found in these substances specific chemical compounds with
proven stimulating effects on the brain (e.g. caffeine in coffee, etc.).
We have various groups of stimulants with various degrees
of stimulating effect – from more to less strong: [8]
- Psychoactive drugs (heroin, cocaine, etc.)
- Alcohol, tobacco, white sugar and salt [9]
- Medicines (medical drugs)
- Food additives
- Mineral food supplements [10]
- Cocoa, coffee, tea
- Natural salt, whole sugar
- Dry herbs and spices
The presence of medicines on the list might surprise some people, but the fact is that they are mineral compounds which
change the brain chemistry as other forms of stimulants do. We can
easily see the effect they have on our consciousness in the case of
antidepressants or anti-psychotics, but not so easily with other medical drugs. [11]
Besides, their presence in the list demonstrates that stimulants are
not always just negative. Medical drugs can be beneficial if they are
used when real need exists, if they are used in the smallest doses as
possible, and if people do not get dependent on them. Some stimulants,
such as herbs and spices, are even part of our daily diet. For sure, it
would be senseless to avoid them just because they have stimulating
effect on our brain. Sometimes we need stimulants to be able to do what
life circumstances demand from us – for example, coffee to keep us alert
in the night shift. In the end it is a question of having the right
balance between the conscious activities which are causing partial
exploitation of our physical organism and our individual power of
regeneration.
Two Streams of Life inside the Human Being
The polarity between food which stimulates organic life – that is, the
life processes that maintain and renew the physical organism – and
stimulants which stimulate the processes of destruction of the physical
organism can be also seen from another perspective. "Life consists of two
tendencies or streams. People speak in a general way today about
development, they say the child is small, he develops – he grows, he is full
of energy, strong – he blossoms with life. They say that a
lower form of life has evolved to a higher, quickening, sprouting life
growing ever more and more complicated. And that is right. This stream of
life is, however, in opposition to another stream, which is present in
every sentient living being, namely, a destructive tendency.
Just as we have a budding, sprouting and integrating life in us, so do we also have the life
of disintegration. Through knowledge such as this we perceive that we cannot
merely say that our life streams up into the brain and nervous system, and
that there matter organizes itself so that the nervous system can become the
bearer of the life of the soul. It is not like that. Life is germinating and
sprouting, but simultaneously there is continual destruction incorporated
into it. Our life is incessantly going to pieces; the decaying life is
always making room for the blossoming life. We are actually dying by
degrees. At every moment something falls apart in us, and each time we build
it up again. As matter is being destroyed, space is created for soul and
spirit to enter and become active in us.
Here we touch upon the great error made by materialism. Materialism
believes that the sprouting and budding life evolves up to the nervous
system in man so that the nerves are built up in the same way as the muscles
are built up out of the blood. It is true they are, but no thinking is
developed by means of building up the nerves; neither is feeling. On the
contrary, only because of a certain disintegration of substance within the
nerves can the soul-spiritual incorporate itself. We must first break matter
down in order that the soul-spiritual can appear in us, so that we can
experience for ourselves" [12] its activity.
This means that soul-spiritual life of man is possible only because on
the physical level the processes of destruction are occurring in us. For
"as we continue along the path of soul research we find that the
processes in the brain and nervous system corresponding with the life of the
soul are, in fact, not constructive processes; they do not arise on account
of there being constructive, thriving, flourishing processes in the nervous
system such as those present in the rest of the organism. No, indeed. What
the soul carries out in the nervous system is a destructive activity; while
we are awake and conscious, and not asleep, it is a destructive activity.
Only because our nervous system is embedded in us in such a way that it is
constantly refreshed by the rest of our organism can the destructive,
decomposing and demolishing activity which thinking lets loose on our
nervous system be ever and again counteracted. It is a destructive activity
of a quality exactly equivalent to that experienced all in one go when the
human being dies, whereupon the whole of the organism disintegrates.
Death
lives in us constantly so long as we use our powers of thinking. In tiny
amounts it is constantly within us, and the one-off event that is death is
merely a summation of what is constantly at work in us. Although the dying
is continuously being balanced out (with forces of life), this balancing is such that when the
time comes death can take place as a matter of course. We must conceive of
death as a force at work in our organism just as we conceive the forces
of life" [13] that enable our existence in the
physical world.
Here we encounter one of the most important manifestations of the
polarity between physical and spiritual realms of existence. Thinking, which
is in its very essence spiritual activity that enables us to evolve our
consciousness – that is, the spiritual life itself – is in its physical
aspect, the force that leads to the destruction of physical life. "Throughout the development
of the physical body there is a budding and sprouting caused by the working
of the etheric body. The astral body and the ego-organization cause
disintegration. In the physical body there is a continual budding and
sprouting life caused by the etheric body. If this process alone were to
take place in the human being, he would never be able to unfold
self-consciousness; for the more the growth-forces are stimulated, the more
this budding and sprouting takes place, the more we lack self-possession.
And when the astral organism and ego-organization separate from the other
two members in sleep, we are unconscious. [14] The forces which build man up,
which cause growth and give rise to 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. This is
the work of the astral body and the ego-organization. They effect a
continual autumn in man. The physical organization and etheric body effect a
continual spring – a budding and sprouting life – but no self-consciousness,
nothing of the nature of soul and spirit. The astral and ego organization
destroy; they darn up the forces of the etheric body, they cause the
physical body to dry up and harden. But this has to be. The physical body
has continually to oscillate between
anabolism and
catabolism. In external
nature we find the forces alternating between spring and autumn; nature
separates them in time in the seasons. In man too, there is a rhythm. When
he falls asleep, it becomes spring for him – the physical and etheric life
bud and sprout; as he awakes the physical and etheric life is thrust back,
hemmed in, and conscious self-possession asserts itself – autumn and winter
are arriving." [15]
With the help of the above explanation we can understand better why
strong stimulants are so addictive. This is due to the fact that they have
very powerful effect on our soul-spiritual life, on the state of our
consciousness. Therefore the main motive for their intake is the experience
of their stimulating effects on the state of human consciousness. We could
even say that in the background of drug abuse is the subconscious longing
for reconnection with the spiritual world. This is especially evident in the
case of psychoactive drugs, such as LSD, heroin, cocaine, etc. From another
perspective, craving for a stimulant is a manifestation of the longing of
the astral body and ego for a pleasurable feeling caused by the altered
consciousness which results from the impact of a stimulant on the nerve
system.
However, there is a high price to pay for this pleasure: the increase of
destructive effects on the etheric-physical organism. Consequently regular
consumption of stimulants becomes a great burden for the human organism,
especially if the body doesn't have enough time for regeneration from the
last intake, or if the etheric body is in one way or other already pretty
much weakened because of the unhealthy life style. Regular intake of
stimulants brings about intensive processes of destruction of the physical
body – actually it leads towards premature processes of aging. In extreme
cases the regular consumption of heavy drugs will exhaust the life forces of
a human being to such an extent that it will cause premature death – that
is, the final victory of the forces of destruction that are continually
active within the human physical organism.
[16]
We need to stress once more that controlled intake of lighter forms of
stimulants can have a healing effect, if it is performed with a therapeutic
aim. For
example, stimulation of catabolic processes by means of stimulants can help
to heal in the case when an "illness is caused by the presence within us of
physical matter that is too old – when the matter remain stuck, instead of
being expelled, as it should have been. Any substance we absorb as physical
matter is meant to be eliminated again. If it remains in the organism, it
becomes a cause of illness." [17]
Our health is namely dependent on the balance between physical-etheric and
soul-spiritual processes that are constantly happening within us – that is,
between two streams of life that are present in our being. Or in other
words, the processes of up-building and decomposition of the human organism
must be in a balance if we want to preserve our health. And as the dominance
of catabolic processes can lead to an illness, in the same manner the
dominance of anabolic processes can cause an illness.
For complementary perspectives see:
♦ FOOD AS SOURCE OF ENERGY
♦ NUTRITION VERSUS MOVEMENT
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
In the Western world there is a trend towards excessive mineralisation of
food. This is evident in conventional food production with use of
food additives:
artificial preservatives, flavourings and colourings.
In most cases they are either mineral compounds extracted from
various organic sources, or made artificially by means of
chemical engineering.
Usually they are sold in the form of powder. Whenever we use such food additives
we add more mineral compounds to the food.
This is also the case with food supplements
in the form of white tablets. It makes no difference if they are made from
organic sources or not, in each case we have mineral crystalline substance
acting as stimulants. [18] However,
there are available natural food supplements such as plant elixirs, herb
mixtures, seaweeds, fish oil, etc. Also dried herbs, spices, and herb teas are
all traditional forms of natural 'food supplements'. If there is a need for
additional essential minerals and vitamins, then the best way is to obtain them
in natural form – as much as possible.
In the developed countries there exists a new trend called
functional foods. These are foods which have
been 'enriched' with a particular substance regarded as beneficial for human
health (for example, orange juice with added calcium). This is just another
attempt to change food into medicine – but not in the right way, for the outcome
is less food and more minerals on our menus.
The final outcome of this trend is that people in affluent societies
are eating an ever increasing amount of stimulants – that is, mineral
substances – either in their food, or in addition to it. The way out is
the consumption of organic-natural-wholefoods. Organic
food has more naturally occurring trace minerals, but much less
added minerals in the form of food additives. Natural
food – such as vegetables, fruit, grains and legumes – are more
authentic food than food which has been highly processed, adulterated,
'enriched' by chemical additives, etc. The former we can still call
food, but for the latter one the term junk food is really a very
appropriate expression, for it is food of very low quality and full of
stimulative substances with an addictive character.
[19] Wholefoods have
more essential trace minerals than refined foods. In the case of highly
refined sugars such as white sugar, we indeed get only sugar crystals,
while all other essential trace minerals and vitamins are lost.
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.
