It is a historical fact that all mystery centres in the past – where the
chosen individuals were subjected to the rigorous systematic training by
means of which they have gained special spiritual capacities – had also
special dietary rules. In the present times the question of the spiritual
development became an affair in which everything depends on the interest and
initiative of each individual. Now we cannot go into the reasons behind such
a dramatic change, for it would demand good understanding of the occult
explanation of the cosmic and human evolution. For the sake of this
principle it will suffice if we focus on the question: What is the role of
nutrition in the spiritual development of individuals in the modern time?
Although this topic is very complex, we can gradually gain a basic
understanding which will help us in the choice of suitable nutrition.
For that purpose we will first look at the role of nutrition in the development
and preservation of the modern human state of consciousness – that is,
self-consciousness of one's own existence.
Ego Organisation – Warmth – The Mineral World
Nutrition belongs to one of the three basic relationships to the
surrounding world. [1] Into our organism enters diverse substances via food
and drink; one of the most important groups is the mineral substances –
iron, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, carbon, silica,
magnesium, etc. If we want to comprehend the relationship between nutrition
and self-consciousness, then we need to know what kind of relationship
exists between mineral substances present in our food and the 'I', the
spiritual core of our being. For that purpose we need to turn to the results
of spiritual-scientific investigation which reveal that "the
ego-organisation stands in a special relationship with all that is mineral
in man. Thus when you take in some mineral substance – for instance by
putting some salt on your tongue – the ego-organisation will at once take
hold of it. And even as the salt proceeds into the stomach the
ego-organisation remains with it all the time. The salt goes still further
as it undergoes various changes, passes through the intestines and goes on,
but never will the ego-organisation leave your salt. They behave like two
things which belong to one another – the ego-organisation and the salt that
enters man.
It is quite different when you eat a fried egg or any other protein
substance. The ego-organisation is only a very little concerned when you
have a bit of fried egg on your tongue. Then the egg is broken down; it is
made completely mineral within you. All life is driven out of it. It is
destroyed within you. At the walls of the small intestines, the protein that you
have taken in ceases to be protein and becomes entirely mineral.
[2] Now it passes to the ego-organisation and from then onwards the mineralised protein
is taken care of by the ego-organisation. So we can say that the
ego-organisation only concerns itself with what is mineral, but everything
that is mineral becomes something different in the human organism from what
it was outside. Nothing must remain as it was when it was outside the human
organism. It is the nature of the ego-organisation that it takes up
everything that is mineral and transforms it completely. Not until we have
died does the mineral again become the mineral of external nature. While we
live on Earth and carry mineral substances within our skin, our
ego-organisation transforms them constantly. Man's ego-organisation
thoroughly metamorphoses all that is mineral, not only the solid, but also
the fluid, the aeriform and the mineral in the form of heat." [3]
These metamorphoses of minerals within the human organism – from the
solid condition to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from gaseous to the
condition of warmth, and then in the opposite direction – are described in
TRANSUBSTANTIATION OF MINERALS. Now
we will focus on the question: By what means does man's
ego-organisation perform these metamorphoses? For example, "what
dissolves the salt on the tongue? The warmth which comes to it in the mouth.
The saliva in which the salt dissolves is almost at the temperature of
blood. The ego-organisation lives in this vital warmth.
The warmth is the
instrument of the ego-organisation by which, during every moment of our
lives, it holds the balance between hardening and sclerosis on the one hand
and dissolution and inflammation on the other. Only in this way can we be
truly human, not only in body but also in soul and spirit. And the mineral
is the means in accordance with which the ego accomplishes this regulation." [4]
We can recognise here the spiritual task of balancing specific polarities within the human organism presented in
THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN HEALTH.
From the above description it is evident that this regulation is
happening through the medium of warmth in cooperation with the minerals that
enter with our food and drink. Thus we come to another reason which is
illuminating the huge importance of minerals in human nutrition.
However, we need to put their effect within the relationship of mineral to
warmth ether and ego-organisation if we want to avoid the one-sided materialistic
approach to the understanding of the role of minerals in the human organism.
We cannot use minerals in such a manner that will serve both our physical
health and our soul-spiritual development without the awareness of their
connection with the human 'I' through the medium of warmth.
The Solid Physical Body as a 'Mirror' for the 'I' and the Soul
The tasks and the effects of minerals in human body are multiple and
multilayered. Now we will look at one of these tasks: the link between
minerals inside our organism and the state of our consciousness. The
spiritual development of individual human beings is intimately related to
the development of the Earth and the whole universe. In the various phases
of earthly evolution there were considerable differences in the inner
constitution of Earth and man. [5] One
of these differences is that "at the early stage in the development of the
Earth, man did not have any mineral substance in him. That which later
condensed into his skeleton and that which permeates the blood and tissues
as a human element were at that time filled with pure life processes. Only
when the mineral kingdom was formed – when the solid, mineral earth as such
came about – did man, as a physical being, incorporate mineral substance
into himself. In this way, he actually became an earthly being."
[6]
The main purpose behind this incorporation of minerals was the
development of a new state of consciousness. "The Earth exists so that the
human being could evolve as an entity aware of being an 'I'. The natural
worlds evolved in the first four rounds [7] in order that in the fourth the
human being would have self awareness, able to mirror himself consciously in
the body." [8]
To be able to achieve this new state of consciousness, the human being
needed help. And this help came, and is still coming, by means of earthly
nutrition. "Food gives us something we have within us like a kind of inner
chair. We feel ourselves, and in this way we become conscious of our ego in
normal life because we have physical matter, physical substance in us. We
feel ourselves in the same way as we do when we sit down on a chair. You
feel the chair on which you sit pressing on you. And so you feel your body
which continually presses on what you have made out of that which you have
received from the world-all. When you are asleep you do not feel it because
you are outside yourself. When you are awake you feel your body; it is a sort of couch that has
been made for you, in some cases harder, if you are bony, in some cases
softer. It is a kind of couch on which man lies down, and one feels
difference between a soft feather bed and a wooden bench. Likewise man
feels the difference between what is hard in him and what is soft. But this
is not the real man, the real man is within." [9] The
real man is the 'I' or ego – the spiritual core of each human being – and
his soul, his astral body.
What is the role of the soul in this connection? If we look at the
mineral substances in the body, we can see that "within the human organism
there are warmth, gaseous and fluid elements, all of which the soul can
penetrate. But there is something which the soul cannot penetrate. This is
comparable to having objects on which light falls but cannot penetrate and
is therefore thrown back. Let us say we have a mirror; light cannot go
through it and is therefore reflected. Similarly, the soul cannot penetrate
the solid mineral [10] organism and is, therefore, continually reflected.
If this were not the case there would be no consciousness at all. Your
consciousness consists of soul experiences reflected from the mineral
organism. You are not aware of the soul life as it is absorbed by the
warmth, gaseous and fluid organism; you experience it only because the soul
life within the warmth, gaseous and fluid, is reflected everywhere by
mineral, just as sunbeams are reflected by a mirror. The outcome of this
reflection is our mental pictures.
When someone deposits too much mineral – mineral always takes on forms –
then he produces a lot of mental pictures; he becomes rich in thoughts. If
too little mineral is secreted the thoughts have vague outlines, like
reflections from a faulty mirror. Or, said differently, when too much
mineral is secreted, thoughts predominate and become very precise, and he
who has them becomes pedantic. He is convinced of the rightness of his
thoughts because they arise from so much solid, he becomes materialistic.
When too little mineral is secreted, or perhaps too much in the rest of the
organism but too little in the head, then the thoughts become indefinite and
the person becomes fanciful or perhaps he becomes a mystic.
Our soul life is dependent on the material processes
taking place within us." [11]
Here we have an example of how the existence and the state of our solid
mineral body affects our soul-spiritual state. We could not attain
self-awareness if we didn't possess a physical body, which serves as a
'mirror' to our 'I' to recognise itself as a separate individual spiritual
entity. If you concentrate on your own body you will notice that you feel
yourself inside the borders of your physical body. Through inner perception
of your own body you are aware of yourself as a separate being among other
beings and things of the world. This very act enables self-consciousness. [12] Thus
"it is through the physical body that the human being comes to full
self-consciousness." [13]
The physical body is made solid in such degree as needed by the help of mineral substances which are provided by the
EARTHLY NUTRITIONAL STREAM –
not directly, but in cooperation with the COSMIC NUTRITIONAL STREAM.
Thus we can understand the crucial role of dietary minerals for the proper development of the
self-conscious human being. "Today, for example, by means of spectral
analysis, all precious metals – i.e. not only iron but also gold, silver,
etc. – have been found in grain. Thus wholegrain bread stimulates the human
ego-forces relative to the highest, most noble minerals which are to be
found between the Earth and the cosmos. Minerals thus provide the most
extensive stimulation of the highest human activity – that of the
ego-organisation." [14]
On the other side we need to be aware that there is a limit of how much
mineral substances we can consume in the pure mineral form, such as table
salt, sugar, and similar. The reason is that "the ego – because it takes in
minerals – not only has to dissolve them in the digestive tract, but also
has to permeate them with warmth, even to raise them up to the level of
warmth itself. This path is made easier and more accessible, however, when
the plant has already taken the mineral a step further and has enlivened the
mineral. If we had to take all the minerals we need directly from the
inorganic world, the strength of our
ego would soon be exhausted. The edible
plants help us to accomplish this important process toward becoming human
because they take on part of our task." [15]
Here we have found a more hidden reason why plants are the main source of
food for humanity taken as a whole. One of the main characteristics of
plants is that they grow out of the mineral ground, absorbing various
minerals and incorporating them into their own physical bodies. [16]
However, the plants do this in such manner that minerals become part of
their physical-etheric body; this means that minerals lose their inorganic
nature and became permeated with the forces of the plant's etheric body – in
other words, minerals become permeated with the life forces. Thus plants
enable us to use minerals in such a manner which serve our proper
development, including the cooperation of minerals in the establishing and
maintaining of such spiritual state which enables us to be aware our own
existence.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ TRANSUBSTANTIATION OF MINERALS
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
This nutritional principle explains the huge importance of minerals in
human nutrition – not just for physical health of man, but also for his
state of consciousness. In a hypothetical case of a person not consuming
any minerals in his diet – which is an impossibility today as minerals
permeate all kingdoms of nature and are present also in water – in such a
case a person would not be able to keep himself awake in the state of
self-consciousness, but would be ‘dreaming’ and ‘sleeping’ also during the
day.
However, this insight should not lead to the
consumption of foods only in the solid mineral form, such as salt, sugar,
baking powder, etc. For the best source of minerals are plant foods. Plants
can provide a wide range of the necessary mineral nutrients under the
following conditions:
- that they grow from healthy, living soil;
- that they are not subjected to over-processing;
- that our diets are not too much one-sided.
Therefore we need to consume a spectrum of various
organic wholefoods
if we want to cater for
our mineral needs in the best possible way. The materialistic approach with
its simplistic ‘formula’ that the lack of a particular mineral in the body
can be solved by supplying it in its isolated
mineral form doesn’t take into account the fact that in this way we
can very easy overburden our ego. But when we eat real food from the plant
kingdom we stimulate the activities of our ego-organisation in a more
suitable and balanced
manner.
Minerals taken in isolated mineral form (such as
salt and sugar) need to be consumed in relatively small amounts,
depending on the individual needs and capacities to perform the processes of
metamorphosis of minerals described in the nutritional principle
TRANSUBSTANTIATION OF MINERALS. If
one consumes more than one is capable to properly utilize, then one will
sooner or later become ill.
Besides, if we want to keep our organism in a healthy state in the long
run, we need to avoid all refined forms of salt and sugar. This is something
of extraordinarily importance, as people who read the medical reports about
the negative health impacts of salt and sugar (over)consumption tend to
eliminate or radically reduce the amount of salt and sugar in their diets,
because in the great majority of these reports there is no
issue of the quality of the salt and sugar addressed. And the
process which affects the quality of salt and sugar the most is whether
they have been refined or not.
This is evident in the case of
bread and baked goods. We can regard them as
one group of foods which are additionally ‘mineralised’ – that is, made
more solid – through the way of preparation Their crust and crunchiness make them especially attractive foods for
modern human beings. But not all breads and baked goods are equal. The
spectrum and amounts of minerals depends upon the quality of each process
involved in the growing of grains and in the preparation of bread and other
baked cereal products. For example, in Foods that Harm, Foods that Heal [17] cakes
and pastries are considered as foods which do more harm than good. They go
even so far as to claim that "generally, there are no cakes that can be
considered to be good for you from a health point of view."
This is no surprise, if you take into account the type and quality of
standard ingredients in common products, such as white flour and white
sugar. This can be compared with my personal experience of more than a year
of regular consumption of excessive amounts of baked products from our bakery in Slovenia,
including cakes and other sweet products, without any negative
health consequences – on the contrary, all this period I was feeling very
vigorous both physically and mentally. The main difference was that we used freshly
ground wholemeal flours [18]and only natural
sweeteners, such as barley malt extract, dry fruit (mainly raisins),
concentrated apple juice, etc. Our case proved that there can exist healthy
cakes, pastries and other sweet baked products!
♣ For help to distinguish real from
artificially mineralised food see
HOLISTIC FOOD 'PYRAMID'.
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.
