Brief Outline of the Developmental Phases of the Human Life
From the spiritual-scientific perspective, human life can be divided into
three large periods:
- “The main characteristic of the first phase of human
life is physical development. We, as individuals, are occupied at this stage
above all with building our body and allowing our organs to mature
physiologically. This period lasts approximately from conception to 21
years of age. We can also call it the 'receptive' or 'preparatory' phase. In
this phase we do not contribute a great deal” [1] to the world; on the
contrary, a great deal of work is invested into our up-bringing by parents,
teachers, and other people.
- “Then we live through the middle phase in which we are primarily
concerned with our soul development. In this phase we are faced with the
major task of self-education and self-development. Our personality is no
longer tied to the body in the same way. It 'comes of age' at 21 and is now
able to determine and be responsible for the course of its life. This is the
phase when we have dealings with many people - that is, a phase in which we
take our cues from social life. We learn from other people. We experience
confrontation, love, enthusiasm, antipathy in our dealings with other
people – feelings with which we have to learn to live and which we have to
bring under the control of our ego. This is the time during which we develop
ourselves as individuals in the world. We truly grow up only when we reach
the end of this phase. The generative and degenerative forces in our body
are balanced in this period of psychological development”
[2]
- At 42 “we enter the third phase, the phase of
spiritual development.
Just as the plant spreads itself and bears blossoms and fruit so the fruits
of our life also have to become visible. We have to allow them to become
fully mature. We not only set out our own objectives in our soul and
spiritual development, but we turn to greater goals. During this period the
biological forces begin to weaken gradually and the degenerative forces in
the body gain the upper hand.” [3]
This is the archetype of individual human development which, of course,
varies greatly from one person to another, depending on numerous factors
which affect human life. The most important among them is the level of
active participation in self-development. And this depends on our
understanding of the world and the human being. We can develop a very
different attitude towards our own life if we know that “the whole of life
runs its course in such a way that we can separate it into periods of about
seven years in length. Roughly speaking, the first is from birth to the
change of teeth, the second to the age of puberty, the third to the
beginning of the twenty-first year, and so on. All these boundary lines are
of course only approximate. The turning-points in the development of the
human being are clearly marked in the earlier part of life – change of
teeth, and puberty – but later are more or less concealed, although they can
be distinctly noted by one who knows what to look for. That which takes
place in the soul and spirit of the human being about the twenty-first year
of life is, for one who can observe it, just as clearly perceptible as the
change at puberty is for external physiology. The division into seven-year
periods holds true, in fact, for the whole course of human life.” [4]
For that reason “man's development is a gradual and very complicated
process. According to spiritual science man passes through several births.
The human being is born into the physical world when he leaves his mother's
body and frees himself of the physical maternal sheath. But when this has
happened he is still enclosed in a second maternal sheath, an etheric one.
During the first seven years of his life the child's etheric body is
completely enveloped in external etheric currents that come from the outer
world, just as the physical body is enveloped until birth in a physical
maternal sheath. At the change of teeth this etheric sheath is stripped
off.” [5] “Thus, the child is born the second time when the etheric body is
born.” [6] At that time “the astral body is still enclosed in the astral
maternal sheath that is stripped off at puberty. After this the astral body
develops freely until the twenty-first or twenty-second year, which is the
time when strictly speaking the actual ego of man is born.” [7]
Now we can ask: What precisely is developing in these early periods? In
“the first period extending from birth until the change of teeth,
the
physical body simply builds its forms. Then we have the second seven-yearly
period to the age of puberty, in which the etheric body is active in the
growth of all these forms, in enlarging the forms. The forms are made
definite till the age of seven, then the already definite forms merely
enlarge. From 14 to 21, the astral body is especially predominant. And so we
see in the twenty-first year the real ‘I’ of man is first born, and becomes
independent.” [8]
We can look at this development from another perspective. “When a child
is born, it remains until its seventh year in the bodily care of the
parents. During this period, the influences that affect it are mainly at the
physical level. Then begins the phase inaugurated – in a real sense – by the
birth of the etheric body. Now development is based on the elaboration of
the memory, on which depends the healthy growth of all the abilities of the
etheric body. The beginning of the third period may be described by saying
that the human being now enters into relation with the external world
through his astral body, at which stage he must acquire the faculty of
individual judgment.” [9]
From the 21st year onwards we are entering into phases of development in
which the newly born ego has the decisive role. If we look at the
FOURFOLD HUMAN BEING
we can distinguish “four members of man's nature: the physical
body, the etheric or life-body, the astral body, and the body of
the Ego. The sentient soul, the intellectual soul, and the spiritual soul,
and beyond these the still higher members of man's nature – spirit-self,
life-self, spirit-man – appear in connection with these four members as
products of transformation.” [10]
How do these transformed members come into existence? By the power of Ego
we can transform:
- our ‘inherited’ emotional reactions (imbedded in the
astral body) into the sentient soul;
- our ‘inherited’ habits of thinking (imbedded in the etheric body) into
the mind soul;
- and our ‘inherited’ life of the responses of Will (imbedded in the
physical body) into consciousness soul.
These transformations happen only if we work consciously on them – that
is, if we decide to change those patterns of mental, emotional, and
behavioural reactions that we acquired in the past, but we don’t like them
anymore.
It is much more demanding to perform any transformation of the astral,
etheric, and physical body which would result in partial establishment of
the spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man. The first reason for this is
that these transformations can be attained only through conscious spiritual
activity which many people will simply not consider it seriously. The next
reason is that even if we set ourselves such tasks it demands a lot of
effort and time to achieve anything. And the third reason is that humanity
has so far passed through great biographical phases only to the period of
the intellectual soul. We are now living only in the first third of the age
of the consciousness soul. [11] This means that the development of the
spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man belongs to the future phases of
human evolution and all we can do as individuals is to develop germs of
these higher spiritual members of human constitution.
Thus we can conclude “that:
- in the first seven years man more particularly builds
up his physical body;
- in the next seven years (from 7 to 14) his etheric body;
- in the next seven years (from 14 to 21) his astral body;
- then for seven years (from 21 to 28) he forms the sentient soul;
- from 28 to 35 he forms the intellectual” [12] or mind soul;
- from 35 to 42 he can form the consciousness soul or
spiritual soul;
- from 42 to 49 he can form the germs of the future spirit self;
- from 49 to 56 he can form the germs of the future
life spirit;
- from 56 to 63 he can form the germs of the future
spirit man;
- and in the rest of life the human being can continue with spiritual development.
We need, of course, to distinguish that in the first three periods of
human life the development is to a large extent subconscious or innate – in
fact it moves from predominantly subconscious in the first years to becoming
more conscious when we move towards the adulthood – while later development
is becoming progressively ever more dependent on our own initiative, from
conscious striving for the many-sided development of our personality.
Growing and Declining Phases of Human Life
For the sake of this nutritional principle we do not need to penetrate
into every important detail of these seven year cycles of human life. It
will suffice if we focus on one attribute – on the polarity of ascending and
descending phases of human life.
As we have seen above “man, after the birth of the ego, lives so as to
fit himself into the conditions of the world and life and is active within
them according to the principles working through the ego: sentient soul,
intellectual soul, and consciousness soul. Then a time arrives when the
ether body retraces the processes of his development from the seventh year
onward. Whereas the astral body has previously developed in such a way that
it has first unfolded in itself what was already present in him as a
possibility at birth, and then, after the birth of the ego, has enriched
itself through the experiences of the outer world, it begins from a certain
point of time to nourish itself spiritually by its own ether body. It feeds
on the ether body. In the further course of life the ether body also begins
to feed on the physical body. With this is connected the decline of the
physical body in old age.” [13]
In the background of this is the fact that “certain gifts can be given
to us only when living in the material world with such forces as result from
a growing body. To be living in a body that has developed up to the
thirty-fifth year is quite different from living in a body of greater age.
For up to our thirty-fifth year we direct our forces towards the body, so
that the forces unfold from within. But from the thirty-fifth year onward
begins a life in which we progress only inwardly – a life in which we must
continually attack the external forces with our life forces. From the point
of view of the inner organisation, these two halves of life differ in every
respect the one from the other” [14]
Therefore “we perceive how, during the processes of birth, the physical
body and etheric body progressively grow and flourish; how they develop out
of the germ, gradually assume human form, and how during earthly life their
vitality progressively increases up to the age of thirty-five, when a
decline sets in and vitality starts gradually to decrease. This process, of
course, can be observed externally.” [15]
From a supersensible perspective we can see something else. “With the
thirty-fifth year, the most favourable time arrives for attaining spiritual
insight and developing spiritual faculties. The forces that otherwise flow
into the bodily nature are becoming free and are at our disposal. As long as
a person is obliged to direct his forces outwards, he cannot direct them
inwards; that is why the age of about thirty-five is the most favourable
time for developing spiritual insight.” [16]
In other words, the decline of physical life makes room for the
spiritual life. In youth we needed our body for the activity in the physical
world; in mature age we have an opportunity to gain better understanding of
the world and ourselves. For that reason there is a decisive crossroad after
the age of 35, with three typical paths leading towards the future. Till
then our soul-spiritual development was supported by the ascending growth of
our body; if this passive relationship continues, then it is not just our
body which is gradually declining in the second half of our life, but also
our spiritual capacities. The other two paths demand us to become active.
If people keep developing their soul-spiritual capacities by means of study,
or art, or ongoing improvement of their working skills, we can designate
this as a middle path. An even better path is possible when people lift this
development onto a higher level with conscious work on their own
spiritual-moral development.
Changing Ways of Nutrition in Different Phases of Life
Now we will look at the three main phases of human life from a
nutritional perspective. For that purpose we need to be familiar with the
existence of EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM and
COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM which
collaborate in the growth, regeneration and maintenance of our physical body
throughout our whole human life. However, their roles and impacts are
altered in the various periods of life.
Bodily development: From birth to 21 years
In the period of pregnancy and in the first twenty-one years of human
life we can see the dominance of the cosmic
nutritional stream which is enabling intensive growth of all inner
organs and systems of the physical body (which includes also all those
systems whose origins are linked with the activities of the etheric body,
astral body, and ego organisation).
This is especially discernible in the first seven years. If people were
familiar with the two nutritional streams they would “know how little they
really receive – as far as the substance of the body is concerned – from the
food they eat. Man receives far more from the air and the light, from all
that he absorbs in a very finely-diluted state from air and light, and so
on. When this is realised, people will more readily believe that man builds
up his second body [17] quite independently of any inherited conditions. For
he builds it entirely from his world-environment. The first body (received
at the birth) is actually only a model and that which comes from the parents
– not only substantially, but as regards the outer bodily forces – is no
longer there in the second period of life. The child's relation to his
parents then becomes an ethical, a soul-relationship. Only in the first
period of life – that is until the seventh year – is it a physical,
hereditary relationship.” [18]
The predominance of cosmic nutrition is evident also from the fact that
babies aren’t born together with colonies of microorganisms; at birth they
are at the very beginning of establishing their own
microbiota which is vital
for proper functioning of the digestive system. This
microbiome is
gradually maturing up until about age 3, when it starts to resemble the
composition of an adult population of microorganisms. A baby is also not immediately capable of
eating any solid food, but only fluid
food (milk) and food in amorphous condition (mashed fruits and vegetables,
grain gruels). Only later can the child start to digest more earthly, solid
food. Actually it is very important that we feed children predominantly with
living food which contains plenty of etheric forces. In this category we
can, beside milk and dairy products, place fruits, vegetables, and whole
grains.
Psychological Development: From 21 to 42 years
In the middle span of human life we have in normal circumstances the
balanced cooperation of the cosmic and earthly nutritional streams which is
providing a basis for free development of the soul realm which includes life
of feelings, ideas and will impulses. This cooperation takes place in the
middle part of the human organism, in the rhythmic system.
If we wish to grasp this relationship we need to look at the
THREEFOLD HUMAN BEING
where we can see that “in the middle system, which embraces the
breathing and the circulation of the blood, spiritual activity and material
substance work into each other. The spiritual activity, flowing through the
movement of our breathing and the beating of our heart, is always
accompanied to some extent by substantiality. And, in the same way, the
substantiality of earthly existence, inasmuch as oxygen streams into the
breathing, is to some extent accompanied by earthly activity. So you see
that in the middle man, in man's second system, everything flows together –
heavenly substance and activity flow in here; earthly activity and substance
flow in there. By this means we are made receptive both to the activity of
the middle world and to its substantiality.” [19]
If we observe the paths of the earthly and cosmic nutritional streams we
can see that “in the head system and the limb system, activity and
substantiality come from quite different sources, but in the middle system
they come from all three worlds (physical, soul and spiritual world) and in
a variety of ways – at one place activity accompanied by substance, in
another place substance accompanied by activity; here pure activity, there
pure substance – all these variations flow through the middle man.” [20]
In other words, in the middle system, in our chest, streaming cosmic
substances and forces are entering from above, and earthly substances and
forces are coming from below – in all possible combinations! Beside this our
rhythmic system is also the carrier of our feeling life. As is presented in
FOOD AND SOUL MOOD our emotional state is, among others, constantly affected
by what we consume. Therefore it should not be a surprise that “in this
middle man there is a great deal of intermingling and for this reason we
need our wonderfully perfect rhythmical system – the rhythm of the heart,
the rhythm of the lungs in breathing. All the intermingling of activity and
substance is balanced, harmonized, melodized, through these rhythms, and
this can happen because man is organized for it.” [21]
This harmonising cannot be achieved overnight, but we need to spend many
years of our adult life to achieve this – if we manage it at all. This is
due to the fact that “in man everything is rhythmical, regular and
harmonious only insofar as it is not subject to human passions, instincts
and the human intellect. Observe the pulse or the processes of digestion and
admire the great rhythm and infinite wisdom of nature flowing through them.
Then compare them with the irregularity and chaos holding sway in human
passions, instincts, desires and particularly in the human intellect.
Visualize the regularity of the pulse and breath and contrast it with the
irregularity of thinking, feeling and willing; they are very unreliable in
comparison. Imagine the wisdom with which the life forces are organized, and
how the rhythmic system must struggle against rhythmless chaos.”
[22]
All this work of balancing is the chief task of the human being in the
middle period of his life. In this phase people can explore diverse food
cultures and enjoy a wide variety of dishes, or can give up to the excessive
indulgence of the selected foods and drinks. The combination of such freedom
with numerous outer temptations and inner urges is a big challenge for our
organism and for our ego which needs to find a balance among all polarities
of outer life and inner needs of its own organism. Therefore it is not
enough to eat just natural food, but we need to dedicate a lot of attention
to our striving to find a balanced diet which in a proper manner stimulates
both cosmic and earthly nutritional streams.
Spiritual Development: From 42 till death
In the third period of human life – from the age 42 to 63 – and
afterwards, the importance of the earthly nutritional stream which is
providing minerals which have a significant role in our spiritual life is
increasing. This kind of impact can be evident from the fact that our food
provides mineral substances for the nourishment of the nerve-sense system –
that is, primarily for our brain. Various aspects of this impact are
presented in the nutritional principles in the chapter
NUTRITION & SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.
Although all food contains natural mineral substances in relative small
amounts, we can increase their quantity if we add ingredients in a mineral
form. The most common are salt and sugar. Both can – under the condition
that they are not refined and that we consume only such amounts which we can
properly transform – support our spiritual activities of thinking and
self-consciousness.
This can be illustrated with an example of a person who is doing
exercises in meditation and contemplation. Such a person is able to
“experience all the sugar it takes into its body, or already has within it,
as something giving it inner firmness, supporting it inwardly, permeating it
to a certain extent with a sort of natural sense of selfhood. And in this
respect a sort of eulogy might even be pronounced on sugar. In passing
through a soul development a person may often notice that he needs to take
sugar, because the psychic development inevitably tends to make him become
more and more selfless. It might be said that, through eating sugar, a sort
of blameless ego-sense is produced, forming a counterpoise to the necessary
selflessness that must develop in the spiritual realm of morality. Otherwise
there might all too easily be the temptation not only to become selfless,
but also dreamy and fantastic – to lose the healthy capacity for judging
earthly conditions. An addition of sugar to the food gives the power, in
spite of the ascent into the spiritual world, to stand firmly on the earth
with both feet, and to cultivate a healthy estimate of earthly things.”
[23]
Of course, the amount of added sugar must be strictly within healthy limits!
Such impact of sugar is not valid only for those who decide to do
spiritual exercises. In all people consumption of sugar “intensifies
physically the character of the human personality. [24] In countries where,
according to statistics, little sugar is eaten, the people have less
character as personalities than where more sugar is eaten. If you go to
countries where the people have more personality, where each one is
conscious in himself, as it were, and then from there go into countries
where the people have more of the common race-type and have less personality
as external physical beings, you will find that in the former countries a
great deal of sugar is consumed, and in the latter very little.”
[25]
Therefore we can imagine why in this period of life there is needed a
more conscious approach in the choice of food and why we need to dedicate
great attention to the mineral ingredients in our food.
From Cosmic Nutrition of the Past to the Earthly Nutrition of the Future
Changes of the way of nutrition in the archetypal phases of individual
biography are in accordance with the changes of forms of human nutrition in
the course of the great cycles of evolution of the Earth. Here we are
dealing with manifestation of evolutionary law of condensed repetition of
the past and anticipated future stages of the development of humanity
through which each individual has to pass. [26]
First form of human nourishment: Sun nutrition
In this period of the evolution of the earth the conditions of human
environment were very different from what we have now. For that reason it is
hard to imagine what this Sun-form of human nourishment looked like. One way
is to picture the plant, especially “everything irradiated with sunlight,
blossoms and fruits of the plants” – in other words, we need to imagine the
inflow of invisible streams of warmth ether, light ether, tone ether, and
life ether which enable a plant to grow and ripen. In ancient times the
human beings were nourished in a similar manner. This type of primeval human
nourishment metamorphosed in the present time into nourishing via senses
that belongs to the COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM.
Second form of human nourishment: Atmospheric streams
of ‘milk’
In the next great period of the evolution of the earth “human beings
could absorb food substance just as today the lungs take in the air. At that
time the nature of the Earth was such that everywhere this nourishment could
be sucked from it. The threads of suction connected man with the whole of
Nature around him, somewhat in the manner in which today the embryo is
nourished in the body of the mother.” [27] This type of past nourishment
metamorphosed in the present time into nourishing via breathing that belongs
to the COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM.
Next forms of human nourishment: Milk and fruits of
the plants
After the condition “when ‘milk’ was the general nourishment for mankind,
the condition when nourishment was provided by the mother's milk” has come
into existence in the next great period. “The taking of milk is the result
of a transformation of a primeval form of nourishment” with the streams of
‘milk’.
“Side by side with milk nourishment there arose a kind of plant
nourishment, namely from the upper parts of the plant. Everything irradiated
with sunlight, blossoms and fruits of the plants, belongs to the Sun.” This
food is the result of a transformation of Sun nourishment from the first
period. Thus both milk and fruits are in fact the first two forms of earthly
nutrition in the evolution of humanity.
New forms of human nourishment: Meat, roots and natural minerals
In the next period of earthly evolution “the drinking of milk and the
eating of fruit continued; other things were added as something new. People
began for the first time to eat food that was not taken from what is living,
but which came from what was dead. They consumed what had yielded up life.
This is a very important transition in human evolution. Through the fact
that human beings nourished themselves from the lifeless it became possible
to make the transition to the development of egohood.”
There were three forms of lifeless food which were introduced in human
diet – meat, roots and minerals (taken from nature such as salt, etc.). This
is also the period when the use of fire for preparation of food has become a
necessity, for people cannot consume large quantities of raw meat and roots
without negative consequences for their health. “In his food therefore man
passed through the three kingdoms. The dead animal is separated from life.
That part of the plant which is in the soil is also separated from life.
[28] Everything of the nature of salt is the dead nature of the mineral
kingdom that remains over from the past” periods of earthly evolution when
everything was much more alive than it is today.
Present forms of human nourishment: Processed foods
The following great period which started around 9,000 years ago is the
present one. In this age “the most outstanding addition is what was gained
from minerals, that is to say, by means of a chemical process. By means of a
mineral-chemical process something was produced from the plant kingdom –
wine. Wine comes about when the plant has been killed [29], but then further
treated with mineral substance. When one bakes the plant one does the same
as when one kills the animal. In the occult sense, bread is what only comes
about when the plant has been killed. Bread and wine are there as the
symbol” of the new foods which have come into existence in the present age.
Both are, in fact, the representatives of the first processed foods in the
human nutrition. Nowadays there are hundreds of them. These are man-made
foods, processed by the help of natural methods, such as milling, extraction
of fluids (juice, oil), fermentation, [30] etc.
To them we can add many thousands of modern processed foods which are
made by means of artificial methods and using ingredients and additives in
mineral form. This is truly dead food without any life energy left in it.
Future form of human nourishment: Man-made mineral
food
What is already to some extent happening now “should develop in the
future as a further ascent from plant to mineral nourishment.” In the
future, around 3500 AD, “it will be possible for the third form of
nourishment [31] to begin to make its appearance, the purely mineral. Man
himself will then be able to create his nourishment. Now he takes what
nature has created for him” or what he can produce by means of agriculture.
“Later he will advance and will himself prepare in the chemical laboratory
the substances he will require.” Of course, he will have to develop for that
purpose specific abilities which nowadays only few people possess. And a
precondition for this is the development of a truly holistic understanding
of the nature of the human being and the role of nutrition.
There is a huge difference if we look at the human being through the
glasses of a one-sided materialistic worldview – seeing a very sophisticated
apparatus which needs fuel for its activity and mineral substances for its
repair – or if we acquire a spiritual-scientific view – seeing an entity of
body, soul and spirit, who is through nourishment establishing a very
complex relationship to the surrounding world; and who is, with this,
contributing to the future evolution of the world and humanity.
