Daily Rhythm of Food Intake and Elimination
If we compare our ordinary life with the events in nature we see that
"the natural world is full of daily, monthly and annual rhythms. The
early bird catches the worm. Dormice hibernate away the winter. Plants open
and close their flowers at the same time each day. Bees search out
nectar-rich flowers as though by prearranged appointment," [1] and so on.
This is also the case with the inner rhythms which are intrinsic to the
human organism. We all know that the processes of food intake, digestion in
the gastrointestinal tract, absorption of nutrients into the blood and
lymph, and elimination of 'waste materials' are evolving – in the healthy
condition of the human organism – in the repetitive daily rhythm. This rhythm is related to the
rotation of the Earth around its axis and to the rhythmical exchange of day
and night. [2]
If we want to understand what is behind this core rhythm of human
nutrition, we need to start with the fact that "man can only be understood
when we know that he has a fourfold structure of physical body, etheric
body, astral body and ego. These four members of man's being are connected
with and dependent on one another in the most manifold ways. Each member
influences the other, and therefore they are in constant connection one with
another. But this cooperation is very complicated. It takes a very long time
for man to get to know these connections as well as the relationship of
these members to certain forces and processes in the cosmos as a whole. For
man has a connection with the cosmos through each of his members; a
connection which is continuous but which is also variable. What we know as
the physical body, etheric body and so on are connected with one another but
also with the cosmos, the whole world about us." [3]
These four members of the human being are in this manner related to
various cosmic rhythms. For example, "the revolution of the Earth in the
course of a day corresponds to the ego rhythm. The ego undergoes rhythmic
changes over a period of 24 hours, still expressed today in the alternation
between waking and sleeping. In earlier times this rhythm always coincided
with the outer one. In a previous stage of human development something very
serious would have happened if man had wished to sleep in the daytime and
stay awake at night. He would have brought his whole life into disorder. The
rhythm is still there today to a certain extent, but it has become
independent of outer circumstances. Man can nowadays sleep in the daytime,
and stay awake at night." [4]
Modern science recognises that "just about everything we humans do shows
these circadian rhythms. They keep everything running like clock-work, and
assign a time for everything. This programmed regularity is vital as a means
of stopping everything from happening at once." [5] However, for the origin
of circadian and other biological rhythms we need to look into the spiritual
realm because "rhythm has been implanted into matter by the spirit, and man,
today, has these rhythms within him as a heritage of this spiritual origin.
Nevertheless we can only understand what these rhythms signify for man's
being and also for the rest of natural creation if we go back to the
original relationships" [6] between the spiritual and
the physical.
The aim of this nutritional principle is not to present rhythms of all inner organs
involved in the processes of human nutrition, because "the person who looks
behind the scenes of existence knows that the various organs of the human
body came into existence and developed at very different periods of human
evolution. What from the spiritual scientific point of view is called 'the
study of the human body' is the most complicated matter imaginable, for the
human organism is extremely complex and its individual organs came into
existence at quite different times. Everything in the physical organism is
an expression or outcome of man's higher members, so that each physical
organ expresses the higher organisation" [7] of the
etheric, astral and spiritual member of the human constitution.
For that reason we will focus on the daily rhythm of food intake,
digestion, absorption and elimination. In these activities the liver plays a
key role, with producing substances for the gall bladder – which produces
bile that enables proper digestion of fats – and with regulation of the
processes of sugar metabolism. [8] The liver is an organ which is manifesting the
strongest force of regeneration among all inner organs. This is due to the
strongest link to the life body. "This supersensible force organism, also
known to us as the etheric body, is of a rhythmical nature. It manifests
itself physically in the fluid organism and has its centre in the
circulation. All liquids in man move rhythmically, not only the blood, but
also the tissue fluids, the lymph, the cerebrospinal fluid, etc. In fact the
characteristics of rhythm, its periodicity, its recurrence in dynamically,
not statically, placed intervals, allow us to conclude that its field of
activity lies in the realm of the etheric." [9]
When we are familiar with the fact that behind the physical organ of the
liver there are active powerful etheric forces, then we can also comprehend
the relationship of the liver to the daily movement of the sun around the
Earth (from our perspective). For
"the Earth respiration has a 24-hour rhythm. The etheric organism of the
Earth moves rhythmically in relation to the solid Earth and the surrounding
cosmos in such a manner that the maximum inspiration occurs at 3am and the
maximum expiration at 3pm. The liver follows the 24-hour rhythm of the
Earth" [10] etheric 'breathing'. The maximum bile
formation occurs at 3pm, while the maximum of storage of blood sugar in the
form of glycogen occurs at 3am.
[11] Thus we can see that the liver follows in its
activities the movement of the sun in a similar manner to how plants do. For
that reason it can be called the human 'inner plant'. By day those liver
activities which are involved in the breakdown of food are dominating. By
night, activities of assimilation and maintenance of blood sugar are
dominating. By day the liver's activity moves in one direction, by night in
another. For that reason the working of the liver is related to the human
ego-organization, because "the ego goes through its cycle in a day." [12]
We can see a similar rhythm of the ego when by day it directs its conscious
activities into the outer world, while by night it sinks into the inner
world of spirit.
On the basis of these explanations about the relationships between the
daily rhythms of the ego-organization, the liver, and the etheric
'breathing' of the Earth, we can understand why many traditional food
cultures have established a daily rhythm of meals with breakfast, lunch, and
supper that were adapted to the working of our 'inner plant'.
From Rhythms of Nature to the Humanized Rhythms
So far we have seen that "the rhythms are essential for the existence of
all living creatures. No normal life process proceeds without rhythm! The
variety is limitless. It extends over plant, animal, and man, to the single
cell as well as to cell groups in organs, to the form processes and to time.
It extends beyond the 'events of life' in the non-living world, into the
atmosphere and into the cosmos." [13] When we discover
the extreme importance of rhythms for our existence and at the same time
experience the chaotic nature of modern life, we might seek a solution in
moving 'back to nature', trying to re-establish old rhythms in accordance
with various cosmic rhythms. Although sometimes this might help – especially
when our life gets so chaotic that we get into serious health troubles –
this is not the proper future direction of evolution.
With the aim to understand the underlying reasons that have brought to
the modern world a deficiency of rhythmical life we need to look at a
specific time in human evolution, around "the middle of Earth evolution. If we were to go back
before this time, then we should have found an exact reflection of cosmic
relationships in the relationships of external human life. It would have had
a very bad effect on man if he had done the kind of things then that he does
now. Nowadays man does not adjust himself very much to the cosmic situation.
In town life things often have to be arranged in such a way that people are
awake when they would otherwise be asleep and asleep when they ought to be
awake. If anything like being awake at night or sleeping in the daytime had
occurred in those times, man would not have survived. In ancient times man
had no need of a clock, for he himself was a clock. His life's course, which
he could clearly feel, absolutely conformed to cosmic relationships. Man
really was a clock. And if he had not conformed to the cosmic situation,
exactly the same thing would have happened to him as happens to a clock if
its movement does not correspond to the outer situation: it goes wrong, and
he would have gone wrong too. The inner rhythm had to correspond to the
outer. And the essential part of man's evolution on Earth is that since the
middle of Earth evolution the outer situation does not absolutely coincide
with the inner one. Man's rhythm has been displaced. Man would never have
become an independent being if all his activity had remained in cosmic
leading strings. The basis of his freedom lies in his having preserved his
inner rhythm while severing himself from external rhythm."
[14]
From those ancient times when our inner being was reflecting the outer
rhythms of the universe "something very special has occurred in man's inner
life, in that he has lifted himself as it were out of the cosmic situation
and is no longer a 'clock' in the proper sense of the word. He is more or
less like a man who has put his clock forward three hours and then,
forgetting how much he has put it forward, cannot sort himself out any more.
This is what happened to man in earthly evolution once he was free of the
situation in which he was like a clock in the cosmos. In certain respects he
brought his astral body into disorder. The more the conditions of human life
were regulated by the physical, the more the old rhythms were preserved; but
the more his life conditions became influenced by thought, the greater the
disorder that came into them. Man needs nowadays textbooks because he has
brought his inner thought processes into disorder. He no longer knows how to
take guidance for his life from the great script of the stars." [15]
Thus we can see that we have fallen out of cosmic relationships, "hence
the lack of order in man's
life of thought and feeling. Regularity still
holds sway in the things man has less influence on in his astral and etheric
bodies, but in the parts that have been given into man's hands, that is, his
sentient soul,
intellectual soul and
consciousness soul disorder and lack of
rhythm have entered in. It is one of the least important matters that in our
cities man turns night into day. It is of far greater significance that
in
his inner life of thought man has torn himself away from the great universal
rhythms. The way man thinks all day long is in a certain respect in
contradiction to the life of the great universe." [16]
This explanation is not given with the aim "to encourage a world
conception that will bring man back into this kind of rhythms again. Man had
to get away from the old rhythms; his progress depends on this. The
essential thing about evolution is that man grows more and more independent
of outer rhythms. But we must not lose the ground from under our feet. It is
not the best thing for man's progress and salvation to return to the old
rhythms and ask himself, for example, how he should live in harmony with the
four quarters of the moon. For it was essential in olden times for man to be
like an impress of the cosmos. But it is important too that man should not
believe he can live without rhythm. Just as his inner life was formed from
outside inwards he must now create rhythms from inside outwards. That is the
essential thing. His inner life must become rhythmic. It is characteristic
of our age that it has lost the old, external rhythms and has not yet
attained new inner ones." [17]
Therefore the right question for the modern human being is: How can I
transform the chaotic nature of my thinking, feeling and willing into
rhythmical inner life? We need to begin with the fact "that man has four
members of his being: physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego. And
when the work is done by the ego, the astral body is changed into spirit-self, the etheric body into
life-spirit and the principle of
physical man into
spirit-man. Now just think how much ground is covered with
this basic formula of spiritual science: physical body, etheric body, astral
body and ego. This is and remains a reliable thread on which to string our
thoughts: these four members of man's being and their inter-working; and
then on a higher level, the transformation of the three lower members: the
third into the fifth, the second into the sixth and the first into the
seventh member of our being. If you count all the members of man's being you
have seven. And if you count those that form the foundation you have four.
In this way you are reproducing in thought the macrocosmic rhythm of 7:4 and
4:7 when you follow this train of thought. You are producing the outer,
macrocosmic rhythm again from out of yourself. You are repeating the rhythm
that was once there macrocosmically in the universe and bringing it to birth
again. When we bring the inner rhythms of number to life in us again in this
way, then out of the chaos of thought life a cosmos of thought is developed
out of the innermost being of the soul. Men have freed themselves from
external rhythms. By means of what is truly a science of the spirit we
return to rhythms again, creating a cosmic structure from within outwards
that is inwardly rhythmic. We can learn to think with inner rhythm in a way
that is necessary for the future, when we think in accordance with these
basic relationships." [18]
Thus we can conclude: "Man has kept the old rhythms that he used to share
with the whole cosmos, but they have become displaced. In the far distant
future man is to reach the point of projecting his rhythms out into the
world again out of the strength of his own inner development. This is the
meaning behind rhythm becoming independent." [19] If
we want to get to this stage we need to develop – among other things – new
eating habits and rhythms of meals on the basis of a true understanding of
the nature of human being and the role of nutrition for the future
development of humanity.
For complementary perspectives see:
♦ DEVELOPMENT OF NEW EATING 'INSTINCTS'
♦ PATH TOWARDS NEW FOOD CULTURE
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
The content of this nutritional principle demonstrates that we cannot
solve all modern problems related to nutrition with dietary measures alone.
For questions of health, including questions of nutrition and rhythms of
nutrition, belong to overall human development,
to which belong also the soul-spiritual aspects of our life. There are
enough facts that demonstrate that we have lost old harmonious rhythmical
relationships to the outer world; this happened due to the development of
freedom in our inner soul-spiritual life. For that reason we need first to
work on establishment of rhythms in our thinking, feeling, and willing. For
this purpose we can either study literature which is the result of
traditional occult science, or literature which is offered by modern
spiritual science. However, we need to be aware that we can bring more
harmony and rhythms in our inner lives only gradually, by persistent
serious study and assimilation of spiritual wisdom. When we succeed to
assimilate new insights to such a degree that they affect our deepest
feelings, then we can also become capable of changing our eating habits,
including the rhythms of meals.
Of course, this doesn't exclude situations when we are, so to speak,
forced to change the rhythm of eating. This is most often the case with
health problems in relation to digestion, such as constipation [20],
irritable bowel syndrome, etc. A general approach to the healing of such
illnesses is based on the principle that "rhythms
heals, and arrhythmia weakens and provokes disease". [21] Besides,
there exists social reasons for the change of the eating rhythm when, for
example, we need to accommodate the timing of our meals to our job
obligations. And also in the case when we spend most of time at home we are
'forced' to develop our own rhythm of meals to suit our own individual
characteristics. Among these is, for example, the fact that people are
divided into 'early birds' and 'night owls' in regard to the rhythm of
waking and sleeping. It is obvious that because of this difference the
rhythm of eating will be different for people from different groups, though
each person will set his or her daily meals according to their inner
biological 'clock'.
THE RITE OF A COMMON MEAL
addresses the challenge of how we can still have a common meal in spite of
all our individual differences. This also includes the question of the daily
rhythm of meals. We cannot simply decide to take into account the rhythmical
life of our liver, and in this way establish a daily
rhythm of meals for a specific group of people. For our biological
clocks have been displaced in the past in different measures! Probably we
will have to invest considerable efforts if we want to arrive at solutions
which will take into account the needs of all individual members of
community. And this can be done only when enough people become aware of the
great importance of nutrition for our future development. It might happen
that a group of people working in this manner will arrive at the daily
rhythm of meals similar to their traditional food culture – for example,
breakfast in the morning, lunch around midday, and supper in the evening. In
spite of this their efforts will not be in vain, for there is an important
difference between knowing why we are doing something or in just following
traditional habits. This is the difference between more or less freedom in
the domain of nutrition.
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.
