Another World inside the Human Organism
In NUTRITION AS A BRIDGE TO THE WORLD
there
are presented three ways through which the outer world enters into the human
being on the physical level: through sense impressions, breathing and
nutrition. But we need to guard against the following widespread simplification:
Usually "it is so easy to think that what exist in man's surroundings, what belongs
to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms and is then taken into the body,
that these external material processes which are investigated by the
physicist, the chemist and so on, simply continue on in the same way in man
himself. However, this is not the case for one must be clear that
inside the
human skin and its processes everything is different from outside it, that
the world inside differs entirely from the world outside. Any process that
takes place outside in nature changes when it occurs in the human being;
in the human being it is permeated with soul; it is spiritual."
[1]
What does this really mean? "In contemplating man as a physical organism
we must be aware that within this physical organism the other three members
are working as formative principles and architects. But the formative
principle of the physical organism works only in the physical part of man,
in another part essentially the etheric body is active, yet in another part
the astral body, and again in a further part man's
ego is active."
[2] This
means that inside the human being only one part of him, his physical-mineral
part is subject to the earthly laws, while other parts are subject to cosmic
forces and laws. In
NUTRITION AS A SUPERSENSIBLE ACTIVITY it is explained that "in the
activity of nourishment the physical substances are worked upon by the
astral and etheric" [3] And through the element
of warmth, our ego-organization is also active in the processes of nutrition.
[4]
For that reason we need to distinguish processes observed outside in
nature from alchemical processes inside the human being – that is,
physiological and chemical processes which are permeated with human
ego-organisation, astral body and etheric body. [5]
However, there is the middle ground, the place which we have inside us, but which at the same time still
belongs to the outside world. This is our digestive tract, a long tube which
runs through our body, but it is separated from our internal environment by
the walls which we could call the 'inner skin'. [6] So
when we have food in our digestive tract the food is inside our body, but it
has not yet became the constituent part of it. Only after food substances
pass through the walls of the small intestine into blood and lymph
circulation do they really enter into our organism. This distinction we need
to keep in mind when we compare the metabolic processes in the digestive
tract with the metabolic processes inside our organism that is enclosed by
the skin on both sides, the outer and the inner one. The skin is the border
that is defining the extent of that which actually belongs to us as our
physical body. All the rest belongs to the outer world.
Therefore we need to be aware that when we eat dishes of food "we receive
them into our organism just as they are outside in surrounding nature –
perhaps somewhat altered – prepared at most by cooking. But our foods must undergo
powerful changes within our organism so that they can satisfy our organism
and become human, as it were, within it. What the foods become in us they
could never become through outer processes. We can study the substances
present in our food in the most different ways in chemical laboratories, but
what happens to the food when we bring it into our digestive apparatus can never occur in the laboratory."
[7]
What is it which enables "the foods to actually change into something
entirely different from what they were at first outside?" [8]
From the description of the
Fourfold Nature of Real Foods
it is evident that each food contains beside the physical substances known
to modern science also other qualities which are a consequence of the
presence of etheric, astral, and spiritual forces of the specific plant or
animal species from which it originates. Now we will look at the processes
in the digestive tract and inside the human organism which are contributing
to the fact that there are evolving not only physical but also alchemical
transformations of substances which we receive with our food.
Destructive Activities in the Digestive Tract
In
WHOLEFOOD vs REFINED FOOD is
available short summary of the breaking-down processes in the digestive
tract from scientific perspective. Here is a spiritual-scientific
explanation why all food that we eat need to go through all these
destructive processes before it can be absorbed into our inner world.
1. Deforming: Destroying the Foreign (Spiritual) Forms of Food
If you compare the food in the mouth with what it was just a few
minutes ago on the plate, then it is evident that we completely destroy
the outward form of a dish, including the shape of food ingredients,
such as shredded vegetables, pieces of fruit, and so on. Of course, this
holds only if we have thoroughly chewed the food! Although in the mouth
the first phase of the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates commences, it
is evident that the main digestive function of the mouth is chewing, by
help of which the dishes we consume are transformed into an amorphous
mushy substance. We can observe how various foods lose their form to
such a degree that it is very hard to recognise what has been eaten.
This shows that our 'I' cannot tolerate anything which has a form that
belongs to another living organism. By means of chewing the individual
character of the plant or animal species from which the specific food
comes is removed. This is an activity of our ordinary ego, the only
conscious part of our ego-organization, in the breakdown processes of
food.
2. 'Desouling': Removal of Foreign Astral Forces from the Food
In the stomach food is subjected to further destructive processes. Here the
human astral body is active by the means of
hydrochloric acid.
The outcome of the chemical breakdown of food in the stomach is the removal of
the foreign astral forces present in the food. This must be done because the
human being cannot incorporate into himself astrality which belongs to other
forms of life. The astral body is the carrier of soul life in human beings and
animals, while in the case of plants astrality is active in the processes of
blossoming and fruit and seed development – that is, in the processes which lead
to the formation of plant protein. [9]
For that reason the process of removal of the astral body from the food in the
stomach can be also called 'desouling' – especially in the case of food of
animal origin where is present much astrality. [10] This
is an activity of our astral body, in cooperation with the unconscious
ego-organization, in the breakdown processes of food.
3. Killing: Removal of Foreign Etheric Forces from the Food
The duodenum is
another place where intensive breakdown processes occur; this time helped by
digestive juices from the gall bladder and the pancreas. Science reveals to us
that here the fats are broken down, while spiritual science reveals that here
our own etheric body is busy with the removal of the foreign etheric substances
and forces from our food. This activity is called 'killing' because the etheric
body is the body which enables life, and its removal means death for any living
organism, be it an elephant or a microorganism. In this case we have the
transformation from a living substance to a 'dead' mineral substance. This is an
activity of our etheric body, in cooperation with our astral body and
unconscious ego-organization, in the breakdown processes of food.
Now we can summarize the above processes: "All outer substance which we
take in has to lose its individuality. We cannot accept cabbage spinach,
potatoes and all the rest (in the original form), for if we did, we would not be able to keep our
own individuality intact. Therefore we break them down and destroy them.
Both the astral and the etheric forces, both the sensitive substance of the
animal kingdom and the living substance of the plant kingdom are broken
down. They are destroyed so that the
chyme is no longer living substance, or
astral substance, but mineralised, physical substance." [11]
What happens next to this substance in "a pulpy
condition, the chyme? It is conveyed forwards through the intestines.
Whatever can form nutritious material for man is then passed into the body through minute organs called the
intestinal villi, in order to serve as
nutritive juices for renewing the body. This is one of the substances which
we have in the body and which we call the
chyle."
[12] What is not useful
for the body is excreted as
faeces. Thus
we can say that chyme represent the final product of breakdown processes
which then separates into:
- chyle (the milky fluid which contains fatty
acids) which unite with the lymph circulation;
- mineral substances (simple sugars and amino acids) which pass over into
the blood circulation;
- faeces, the aggregate of all useless substances which are excreted from
the body.
Constructive Activities inside Our Skin
One of the main results of destructive processes in the digestive tract
is the transformation of the living organic molecules (proteins, fats, and
carbohydrates) into dead
inorganic
molecules (amino acids,
fatty acids, etc)
which can then enter our lymph and blood circulation. But our organism cannot use
these substances as they are, we need to transform them again – this time in
the opposite, constructive direction.
1. Enlivening: Permeation of Food Substances with the Etheric Body
In the small intestine the digested food in the form of chyme approaches the
intestinal villi "which transmits the selected nutrients from the intestines
into the lymph vessels and into the blood vessels. On this path a re-enlivening
of the food must take place. The foods must first become
dead in us and then must be enlivened again. We would not be able to tolerate in
our human organism a continuation of that life which exists in the animal or
plant from which we take the food. What we take in must be taken up by our own
etheric body and enlivened again. Being re-enlivened means that (inorganic
substances) are taken up by our own etheric body" [13] and
permeated with our own etheric forces. Our body is a living organism which can
use only living substances for its functions. But this time these substances are
permeated with our own etheric body and not with foreign etheric bodies what was
the case when food entered our mouth. This permeation is one of the key
activities of our etheric body for the proper renewal of the physical body.
2. Ensouling: Permeation of Food Substances with the Astral Body
The next activity is the permeation of enlivened substances with our
own astrality; in this manner the living substances are lifted into the
realm of sentient substances. "Now
it becomes necessary for what is taken up by our etheric body and saturated
with oxygen to be inserted into the astral body. In this way you have
what the human being takes in as food driven to the point where it is taken
up into the astrality, the astral body of the human organism."
[14] Only then can these substances be of use to us.
If we had not first removed foreign astrality and now replaced it with our
own, we would feel as if we had a 'foreign object' within us. This
permeation is one of the key activities of our astral body for the proper
renewal of the physical body.
3. Individualizing: Permeation of Food Substances with the Ego
The last activity the organism needs to do is to permeate the living and
sentient substances with ego forces, to impress an individual stamp, so to
speak, on each substance which is inside our body. "First we have the foods
driven to the point where they are killed and then – in being pushed towards
the lymph and re-enlivened – they can be taken up by the etheric body. Then
all of this is driven into the astral body. Now the ego must also be
engaged, however. Everything in our organism must be taken hold of by the
ego." [15]
This means that our ego-organisation must permeate all substances which will
become an integral part of our body with its own forces. Only then our
organism can use it in such manner that it can serve our individual being in
the most suitable way. This permeation is one of the key activities of our
ego for the proper renewal of the physical body.
Where inside our inner world do these alchemical processes of
metamorphosis of food take place and which organs participate in them? First
"we must understand that man's inner organs – the liver, lungs, kidneys,
etc. – represent centres which are permeated in a manifold manner by etheric
and astral forces, and within which the ego-organization acts in different
manners." [16] In
the human body "there are certain organs which we have to recognise as being
determined principally through the force-system of the ether body; and other
which are determined, rather, through the currents or forces coming from the
astral body; whereas yet again others are to a greater degree determined
through the currents of the Ego." [17]
In occult physiology we can distinguish seven inner organs which are
called the 'inner planetary system': heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, liver,
gall-bladder, and spleen. These organs are participating in the alchemical
processes of creation of human substances described above. "As soon as the
lymph vessels have taken chyle up, it is led upwards through the thoracic
tract. The thoracic tract carries it up into the heart. From the heart it
goes into our lung system, where it receives through the rhythmic system the
enlivening qualities of oxygen. In this way the physical chyle is lifted
into the realm of living substance. Then it is taken up by another system.
At this stage, we cannot remain solely within the anatomical structure. The
etheric, astral, and Ego spheres are inserted into different organs, but, as
processes, do not terminate where the physical organs do. [18] Everything
connected with the kidneys and the cerebrospinal fluid is a kind of physical
shadow of that process which now takes up the living substance and
permeates it with the forces of nitrogen, making it into sensitive
substance. Then another set of processes, which are represented physically
by the liver, the gall-bladder, and the spleen, raise it still further, so
that, with the help of hydrogen, it becomes a substance which can carry an
Ego." [19]
Thus we can summarize:
- In the process of permeation of food substances with
the etheric body the heart and the lungs participate.
- In the process of permeation of food substances with the astral body
the kidneys and the brain participate.
- In the process of permeation of food substances with the ego forces
the gall-bladder, the liver and the spleen participate.
[20]
Processes of Creation as a Reflection of Processes of Destruction
With the help of the above descriptions we come to know that "we take in
only the actual mineral constituent from outer material substances. The
human being actually must take nothing living, nothing astral, in from
outside; what he takes in from outside he has to transform first within his
own organ system in such way that it can be taken up into his own etheric
and into his own astral and into his ego system." [21] Through
these processes we are continuously renewing our physical organism, for our
organs are exposed to continuous processes of destruction. For example,
"such an organ as the stomach is completely destroyed in the course of seven
or eight years. Its substance completely disappears and is always renewed
again." [22] This
activity can be recognised in the existence of catabolism and anabolism in
the metabolic system. Inside our organism we are constantly exposed to the
processes of breaking-down and building-up of the bodily organs and tissues.
This activity cannot be properly understood without consideration of the
EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM
and the COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM. The knowledge
of these streams enables us to see Destructive Activities in the Digestive
Tract as part of the earthly nutritional stream and
Constructive Activities
inside Our Skin as manifestation of the cosmic nutritional stream. However,
there is a very important law as to how these two groups of alchemical
activities are connected through their supersensible forces. If we compare
protein – one of the main food ingredients – with mineral in the form of
salt we see that when "man takes salt into his body it is actually changed
in no other way than that it is dissolved. In contrast, that which we have
in a hen's egg and also in the plants – these proteins are immediately
destroyed in the human body; they do not remain protein. Now however, man
has used up the forces needed to destroy these proteins, and the consequence
of this is that he again receives forces to produce his own proteins because
he has destroyed proteins in food before. Thus he makes his own proteins.
But he would not make it for himself if he had not before destroyed
proteins" [23]
he has consumed with own food.
Here we have the rule for the proper creation of our own proteins which
are the main substance in our body. However, this rule is not valid only for
activities on the level of the etheric body, but also for activities on the
level of the astral body and the ego-organization. "Certainly, what we eat is important. But most of what we
consume on a daily basis is not there to be absorbed into the body and
deposited as substance. It is there in order to convey its forces to the
body, to rouse the body to activity." [24] Therefore
we arrive at an insight that through destructive activities in the digestive
tract our organism receives appropriate supersensible forces which enable it
to create substances out of cosmic ethers. Only in this manner are we
capable of properly performing alchemical processes of enlivening,
'ensouling' and individualising of all substances which constitute our
physical body.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ CREATION OF HUMAN PROTEINS
