Spiritual Forces Active behind All Nutritive Substances
The science which investigates human anatomy and physiology has revealed
that the structure of the human body has several layers, of which we see
just the outer one, the human body itself. But inside the body we can find
five additional layers of structure: [1]
- Systems (e.g.
nervous system, respiratory system, etc.)
- Organs (e.g.
brain, lungs, liver, etc.)
- Tissues (e.g.
nervous tissue, muscle tissue, etc.)
- Cells (e.g.
neuron, liver cell, muscle cell, etc.)
- Chemical substances: Molecules and elements
Natural science has succeeded in discovering an enormous amount of knowledge
about these physical structures of our organism, and about the
metabolic-chemical pathways which are happening all the time inside the human
body. Besides this there is available a great amount of data about the chemical
composition of foods and how their ingredients influence the development and
activity of various cells in our organism. However, all this knowledge does not
enable us to understand the riddles of human nutrition. This is possible only
when we start to comprehend the spiritual forces working behind all nutritive
substances. For "we must, of course, be quite clear
that the spirit is a reality; but if spirit is to be an active power on the
earth, it must work in the earth's substances. In spiritual science,
therefore, we must be able to perceive how the spirit works in the various
substances. Otherwise it would be like saying: Oh, but we are spiritual
people and machines are entirely material; we do not want anything material,
therefore we shall not buy iron or steel but make machines entirely out of
spirit. That, of course, is sheer nonsense! Substance is absolutely
essential. The spirit working as the creative power in nature needs
substance." [2]
The modern tendency is that food is investigated from the perspective of
its material composition only, while much less attention is given to the
ratio of quantities of nutritive substances and their effects on the human
being. For example, science lists vitamins among physical substances,
although their main characteristic is that, in spite of being present in
very small amounts, they have extremely powerful effects on the life
functions. In spiritual science vitamins are not regarded as physical
substances, although they have links with mineral substances which science
calls vitamins.
[3] Vitamins are etheric substances, as they are
enzymes,
antioxidants,
phytochemicals,
etc. These etheric substances are working inside the living organism –
composed from the physical and the etheric body – in such a manner that they
create links to specific physical substances. But it must be clear to us
that we are in the etheric sphere whenever we deal with extremely small
quantities of substances with powerful physiological effects.
Therefore spiritual science distinguishes in our food only four groups of
nutritive substances: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and minerals. However, "the essential point is not whether a potato, or cabbage, or corn
is composed of such and such percentage of carbohydrates. For a true
physiology of nutrition all that is irrelevant. What we really need to know
is how these things actually work within the human being.
Behind everything material there is
the spiritual, also behind nutriments. With them we do not only take up what
is materially spread out before our eyes, but with them we also eat what is
spiritual behind it. Through the nourishment process we enter beyond this or
that material substance into connection with this or that
spiritual substance that stands behind it." [4] Although the nature and
relationships of spiritual substances and forces are not simple, for they
are mirroring the great complexity of the structures and substances working
in the human physical organism, we can get first glimpses of their true
character through the knowledge of what is their main task in the
relationship to the body.
When we investigate proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and mineral substances
we need to keep in mind that they belong to the lowest layer of the internal
structure of human being – that is, at the chemical layer where we find
numerous molecules made from the elements from the periodic table. As is
explained in INORGANIC vs ORGANIC SUBSTANCES
science doesn't make a
distinction between inorganic and organic molecules, except in regard to
their size. But when we observe proteins, carbohydrates and fats we have
already passed the threshold between the dead inorganic realm and the realm
of life. Although also these molecules contain chemical structure composed
by atoms of various elements, this structure is permeated by an
etheric body which is composed of etheric substances of
four ethers.
This enables them to participate in the life functions of all cells in the
living organism.
The Nature of Spiritual Forces behind the Living Molecules and Minerals
Now we will look at the nature of spiritual forces working behind the
living molecules – proteins, carbohydrates and fats
[5] – and behind the mineral molecules and elements that
enter the human being by means of nutrition.
Proteins as Substances that Enable Life
We will start our survey with proteins. "The presence of protein is essential from the very outset. It is
present in the egg before a human being or an animal comes into existence.
We can therefore say that protein is the substance which really builds up
the human body and is the basis upon which it develops; it is the primary
and fundamental substance out of which everything else in the body must
unfold. Protein is present in the mother's womb as a tiny egg; the
fertilisation of the egg enables the protein to become the basis of the
human body. But man needs protein all the time; it must be a constituent of
his regular food. If his organism contains too little protein, or he cannot
thoroughly digest it, he will gradually waste away; but if at any moment of
his life he were without protein he would immediately die. Protein is
essential both for the beginning of existence and
for man's very life.
Absence of protein means death." [6]
Thus we can regard proteins as substances which carry forces of life.
This is not hard to see if we look at the presence and function of proteins
in the living organisms, especially in the animal and human realms – life is
not possible without their presence. However, the statement that we are
threatened by death if we are any moment without proteins, makes sense only
if we set it in the context of the COSMIC
NUTRITIONAL STREAM by help of which we create all substances needed by
our body out of cosmic ethers that are continually entering us via sense
organs and breathing. In the process of the
CREATION OF HUMAN PROTEINS our organism therefore doesn't use nitrogen,
oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur from the food, but it obtains them from the air
we breathe in.
[7] And we all know that man can stand several weeks without food,
several days without water, and only limited amount of minutes without air
before he dies. This means that we can be without proteins in our food for
much longer than without proteins which we ourselves need to constantly
recreate out of cosmic ethers.
Carbohydrates as Mediators of Human Form
The spiritual nature of carbohydrates is more challenging to comprehend,
because "the carbohydrates have a great deal to do with shaping the human
form. If our food contained no carbohydrates, all kinds of distortions
would appear: malformations of the nose or the ears, for example. It is due
to the carbohydrates that we bear the outward stamp of man. If a person's
constitution is such that the carbohydrates are not carried into the brain
but deposited in the intestines and stomach, we shall see him becoming
shrivelled and feeble, as though incapable of holding himself erect.
The carbohydrates help to give our human form its proper shape."
[8]
The above explanation does not mean that carbohydrates do not play an
important role in providing energy for our cells – as is explained in
LIVING PROCESS OF INNER 'COMBUSTION' – but it directs our attention to the role of carbon, the
key element of carbohydrates. "The scaffold-like structure of carbon comes to light
whenever organic substance is carbonized. Carbon is indeed the form-giving
element throughout organic nature. Carbon, which combines only with
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in addition to combining with itself, is a
component of several million known compounds, while the whole realm of
inorganic chemical elements
– the mineral world – accounts for only a few
tens of thousands." [9] For that reason we could designate the carbon as the
master builder in the realm of plants.
The link between carbohydrates and activities of forming inside the
living organisms is confirmed also by the new scientific discovery of the
glyconutrients
– the special class of sugars which "affect how our cells
form the structure of the body." [10] These
carbohydrates work on the cellular level, which is the level of the etheric
body. But behind all carbohydrates there are working those spiritual forces
which shape the form of human beings. This is not valid only for this
special group of carbohydrates, because with the help of spiritual science
we can see behind all carbohydrates those spiritual forces which participate
in the forming of the human figure. [11]
Fats as Etheric Mediators of Material Substances
In the above description we have seen that carbohydrates provide the plan
of the human structure, but "carbohydrates do not fill out this form – that
is done by the fats. The carbohydrates have, so to speak, merely outlined the form and the
fats provide the filling material. That is their function –
to provide us
with material substance. In fat itself, of course, this material has a
definite character. Fat, needless to say, accumulates and is deposited in
the physical body. But the all-important function of enabling the fat to be
deposited and at the same time to remain living fat, is performed by the
etheric body." [12]
This role of fats can be understood only if we take into account the
EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM and the
COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM.
If we observe carefully the participation of these two streams –
the first from the physical conditions into the etheric, the second from the
etheric conditions into the physical – then we can grasp that the most
important task of fats is to stimulate the inflow of cosmic ethers and their
materialization into the physical substances of our body. In general, we are
familiar with the role of the fats in warming and insulating the body by
means of fat layers; but much more important is the activity of the
dissolution and condensation of material substances that is performed by the
fats on the level of the etheric body. This is the SECRET LIFE OF FATS which
is essential for our existence and survival in the physical world.
Minerals as Mediators of Cosmic Thoughts
So far we have looked at the nature of spiritual forces working behind
the living substances. Now we will shortly look at the nature of spiritual
forces working behind mineral substances. We will start with the observation
that "outside in nature we see the circulation of fluids and in ourselves we
also see a kind of circulation of fluids. All that transpires in us in that
way, has nothing to do with our intellectual thinking. But when we look out
into the cosmos and see how water condenses to ice, how certain mineral
substances deposited as sediments, form stones and crystals, in short when
we consider the processes of the mineral sphere and their corresponding
processes in our own organism, we find that what transpires as mineral
processes has to do with all that finally culminates in our intellectual
thinking. That which underlies our organism of thought consists in purely
mineral processes occurring within us. If we were not involved to a special
degree with the mineral kingdom, with those forces which appear in
crystallisation, and in the deposits of (mineral) salts in the external
world, we should never have become the thinking beings we are"
[13]
in modern times.
As we know the mineral kingdom forms the basis for the development of
plant life, and the plant kingdom forms the basis for the development of
animal and human life. Therefore it is no surprise that we can find minerals
in all food we consume. From the content of
EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM we
can see that we obtain the minerals from our food in the form of mineral
salts. These "salts in food must find their way up to the brain if we are
capable of thinking." [14]
Thus we can conclude: "Out there are the cosmic
thoughts which enshrine themselves in the crystals; man takes into himself
these cosmic thoughts when, knowingly and deliberately, he dissolves the
(mineral) salts and gives them new form in his etheric body. Cosmic thoughts
repeat themselves in the thoughts of men. From the concrete thoughts of the
world of myriad forms, from the innermost thoughts of man, there arises an
etheric world as rich in its varied forms as the world outside us."
[15]
This etheric world inside us is the world of our thoughts and ideas.
♠ ♠ ♠
From the above descriptions we can see that the essence of all living
organisms is in the fact that they are capable of performing specific activities
which are typical for them – they can perform living functions, they have
elaborate forms which enable their innate activities, and they are taking in the
substances and transform them in accordance with their inner nature. All this is
possible because via proteins, carbohydrates and fats there enters into the
organism spiritual forces that are active on the etheric-physical level – that
is, on the level between organic and inorganic life. These forces must work in a
harmonious cooperation with the aim to keep the organism strong and healthy.
This is valid for all living organisms. But in regard to the effects of
mineral substances the human being has a special position. The reason for
this lies in the fact that only a human being is capable of transforming the
mineral substances to such a degree that spiritual forces behind them became
the source of his own thoughts. This is the reason why the human being is
called the 'crown of creation'. For only inside us resides the power which
can transform cosmic thoughts into human thoughts.
Thus we can summarize the effects of four types of nutritive substances
in the following way: "The (mineral) salts have a special connection with
the front part of the head (the seat of intellectual thinking); that is
where they are chiefly deposited. The carbohydrates are deposited a little
farther back. Upon the carbohydrates depends the proper shaping of the human
form. The fats are deposited still farther back and from there they begin to
fill out the body (with the substance). The fats do not enter directly into
the body but pass from the blood into the head and are distributed to the
body from there. All the substances, including protein (carrying life),
pass
through the head." [16]
This means that every substance we consume serves only as a stimulus for the
adequate assimilation of
cosmic ethers entering via cosmic nutrition which
are the true source of substances inside our physical organism. [17]
