The Effects of Esoteric Development. Lecture 2: Food; Cosmos and Sun, Brain and Heart

   

Lecture 2 of 10

Rudolf Steiner, The Hague, March 21, 1913:

Of course, the anthroposophist is much closer to the effects of esotericism or also of anthroposophy on the ethereal and astral cover and the self than the effects on the physical cover. Nevertheless, we shall gain a basis for the next few days, when we have to consider the more spiritual members of human nature from this point of view, if we also consider what can be said about the alteration of the physical envelopes. It should be expressly noted, however, that the changes I am giving here do not relate to the highest levels of initiation, for example, but that they relate more to the initial esoteric life and that they are therefore of a certain general importance.

You will have seen from yesterday that, under the influences that have been characterized, the physical body of man becomes, so to speak, more alive, more flexible in itself; that in a certain way he can therefore become more uncomfortable. In a certain way one experiences it more than one experiences it in the external, exoteric, so-called normal life of man. We shall also have to speak of the difference between vegetable and animal food with the other envelopes; but for the design and organization of the physical body the difference between vegetable and animal food is an extraordinarily great one. It must always be emphasized, of course, that it cannot be our job to make propaganda for one or the other diet, but only to say what is right, what is true in this field; and the facts which come into consideration become facts of experience through the development of the soul.

Above all, it becomes a fact of experience that our physical shell has to bear more of animal nutrition, more so to speak to carry along with it, than of vegetable nutrition. We emphasized yesterday that the physical body, as it were, shrinks, detaches itself from the higher spiritual members through development.

If animal food is now supplied to him, then this animal food shows itself, as was characterized yesterday, by the fact that it is experienced as something that is incorporated into the human organism as a strong foreign substance, which one learns to feel when a radical expression may be used, like a stake inserted into the flesh.

In this respect, in an esoteric development, one experiences, so to speak, the earthly gravity of animal food more than one experiences it otherwise, and one experiences above all the fact that animal food fuels the instinctive life of the will. The life of will, which runs more unconsciously, which runs more in emotions and passions, that fuels animal food. It is therefore an entirely correct external observation when it is said that warlike peoples are more inclined to animal food than peaceable peoples. But this need by no means lead to the belief that vegetable food must drive all courage and all energy out of people. We shall see how what man instincts in a certain way through the deprivation of animal nourishment, loses in aggressive passions and affects - all of this can only be discussed with the representation of the astral body - that everything is replaced from within by the soul. But all these things are connected with the whole attitude of man and our other natural kingdoms to the cosmos, and one gradually achieves, if one does not yet achieve this through higher clairvoyance, a kind of proof, a kind of confirmation of what the occultist states about connections between human life and the cosmos. One obtains a kind of proof of this if one gets to know the nature and peculiarity of the substances of the earth used as food through this experience of the more agile, more lively processes of the physical body.

You see, it is interesting, for example, to compare three kinds of food in terms of their cosmic meaning: that is milk and everything that is connected with it, that is the plant world and everything that is connected with it, namely made from it becomes, and that is animal food. Milk, plants, animals as food; you can learn to compare them in a certain way if you have been made more receptive to what you experience in these foods through esoteric development; and then it will be easier to learn to oversee the confirmations that result from a reasonable observation of the outside world. If you explored the world occultistically, you would find what milk substance is on earth, but not on any other planet in our solar system. What is produced within living beings in a similar way on other planets of our solar system would appear to you as something completely different from the milk on earth. Milk is something specifically earthly. And if one wanted to generalize what milk is, one would have to say: The living beings of every planetary system have their own milk.

If one examines the plant system of our earth and compares it occultistically with the plant systems of other planets, with what can be compared with it, one has to say: It is true that the forms of the plant being on earth and the plant being on other planets of our solar system are different, but the inner being of the plant on earth is not just an earthly one, but one that belongs to the solar system; that is, the plant nature of our earth is related to the plant nature of the other planets of our solar system, so that we have something protruding in the plants that could also be found on other planets of our system. As far as the animal world is concerned, it already follows from what has been said about milk and is otherwise very easy to ascertain from an occult point of view: that it is radically different as terrestrial animal world from anything similar that could be found on other planets. If one now takes the experience of milk food, so to speak, the milk food shows itself before the gaze, before the experience of the occultist, in such a way that it means to the human body - we want to stay with the human being - what it means to the earth, so to speak Our planet is captivated by what brings it together with the human race on earth as belonging to a common species with this human race. The fact that people make up a whole also with regard to the physical shell system is promoted by the fact that living things prepare food for living things in the animal sense. And one can say: Everything that is supplied to the human organism through milk food, this prepares him to be a human earth creature, brings him together with the conditions of the earth, but it does not actually tie him to the earth. It makes him a citizen of the earth and does not prevent him from being a citizen of the whole solar system.

It is different with meat food. The meat food that is taken from the realm that is specifically earthly, and that is not taken from the immediate life process of the human or animal life like milk, but that is taken from that part of the animal substance that has already been prepared for the animal, This meat food ties man specifically to the earth, makes him an earth creature in such a way that one has to say: As much as a person penetrates his own organism with the effects of meat food, the same amount of strength is withdrawn from the earth at all. Through the meat diet it connects with the earth planet in the most eminent sense. While the milk food enables him to belong to the earth, so to speak, as to a transit point of his development, condemns the human diet of meat, if it is not raised by something else, to shape the earthly stay as a permanent one, to one to which he adapts completely. And the decision to take milk food means, as it were: I want to stay on earth, to be able to fulfill my mission on earth, but not only be there for earth. The will to nourish meat means: The earthly existence appeals to me in such a way that I would forego all heavens and would ideally like to be completely absorbed in the conditions of earthly existence. I want to be on earth, to be able to fulfill my mission on earth, but not only be there for earth. The will to nourish meat means: The earthly existence appeals to me in such a way that I would forego all heavens and would ideally like to be completely absorbed in the conditions of earthly existence. I want to be on earth, to be able to fulfill my mission on earth, but not only be there for earth. The will to nourish meat means: The earthly existence appeals to me in such a way that I would forego all heavens and would ideally like to be completely absorbed in the conditions of earthly existence.

Plant food is such that it stimulates those forces in the organism which bring man into a kind of cosmic connection with the entire planetary system. What man has to accomplish when he processes the plant food in his own organism, that stimulates forces that are contained in the entire solar system, so that the human being in his physical shell becomes a participant in the forces of the entire solar system, that is does not make himself alien to them, does not tear himself away from them. This is something that in a certain respect the soul, which is developing anthroposophically or esoterically, can experience in itself that in a certain respect it is not something heavy with earth, but something of the sun, that is, the central body of the entire planetary system absorbs into itself. The lightness of the organism, which it receives through the plant food, which lifts above the weight of the earth, which makes a certain inner - one might say - gradually developing as a taste sensation in the human organism possible: that it is him, this organism As if he and the plants really enjoyed the sunlight in a certain way, which does so much work in the plants.

From what has been said, you can see that it is particularly important in occult and esoteric developments not to tie oneself to the earth, so to speak, to equip oneself with all earthly gravity by eating meat when it is lacking can according to the individual and hereditary relationships; the actual decision can always only be made according to the personal circumstances of the individual person. It will be a real relief for the whole development of human life if the human being can abstain from eating meat. On the other hand, certain doubts already begin when a person wanted to be fanatical vegetarian in the sense that he wanted to avoid all milk and all milk products.

It should therefore be noted that in a certain sense it is good if the anthroposophically striving person does not turn himself into a fanatical spiritual enthusiast by creating the difficulty in the physical shell, which already wants to remove this physical shell from everyone Kinship with the earthly-human. So that we do not become too much striving for mental development, so that we are not alienated from human feelings, human activity on earth, it is good if we, as wanderers on earth, allow ourselves to be complained in a certain way by the consumption of milk and by the Enjoyment of dairy products. And it can even be a very systematic training for a person not only to always live, so to speak, in the spiritual worlds and thereby become alien to the earth, but also to fulfill tasks on earth, it can be a systematic training not to be a mere vegetarian, but to enjoy milk and dairy products alongside. In this way he will make his organism, his physical shell related to the earth, related to humanity, but not tied to the earth, burdened with being earthly, as is the case through the enjoyment of meat.

So it is interesting in every way to see how these things are related to cosmic secrets and how one can follow the actual effects of nutrients in the human organism through knowledge of these cosmic secrets. As people who are interested in occult truths, my dear friends, you must become more and more aware of the fact that what occurs on our earth - and our physical body also belongs to our earthly existence - is not something is only dependent on earthly forces and conditions, but is also dependent on the forces and conditions of extraterrestrial beings, cosmic beings.

But this is the case in very different ways. For example, if we look at animal protein, as it is, say, present in hen's egg, we must be clear that such animal protein is not just what the chemist finds in his analysis, but that its structure is a result of cosmic forces, and the cosmic forces act on this protein essentially only after they have first acted on the earth itself and at most on the moon accompanying the earth. The cosmic influence on animal protein is therefore an indirect one. The forces of the cosmos do not act directly on the protein, but indirectly; they work first on the earth and the earth in turn works with its forces, which it receives from the cosmos, back to the composition of animal protein. At most the moon is involved, but only in such a way that it first receives the forces from the cosmos and only then acts back on the animal protein with these forces, which it radiates from itself. In the smallest animal cell, i.e. also in the protein, those who are able to see through things with an occult gaze can see how not only the physical and chemical forces present on earth are present, but how the smallest The cell, let's say of the chicken egg, is built up from the forces that the earth only receives from the cosmos.

So what we call protein is indirectly related to the cosmos, but this animal protein substance, as it is on earth, would never arise if earth were not there. It could not arise directly from the cosmos; it is absolutely a product of what the earth must first receive from the cosmos.

For example, it is again different with what we know as fatty substance, what we know as earthly fatty substance of living beings, which also forms part of food, especially in those people who enjoy animal food. So let's talk about these animal fats. What we call fatty substance, regardless of whether a person enjoys it from the outside or forms it himself in his own organism, is built up according to completely different cosmic laws than the protein substance. While those cosmic forces are involved in this, which emanate from beings of the hierarchies of form, those beings which we call the spirits of movement are preferably involved in the structure of the fatty substance. You see, it's important to mention things like that because that's how you get the term how complicated something really is that external science imagines to be so infinitely simple. No living being could be permeated with protein substance on the one hand, and fatty substance on the other, if the spirit of form and the spirit of movement did not work together - albeit indirectly - from the cosmos. So we can trace the spiritual effects, which we know as proceeding from the beings of the various hierarchies, right down to the substance that composes our physical shell. Therefore, in the experience that occurs when the soul has undergone an anthroposophical development, this experience also becomes more differentiated in itself, more flexible in itself, which one has compared to what one carries as protein and what one has as fat carries within itself in the physical shell. It is a twofold feeling. What flows together in a single sensation in a person who lives in an external normal existence, one experiences in confusion: what the fats do in the organism and what the protein substances do. As the whole physical organism becomes more mobile, the developing soul learns to distinguish between two kinds of sensations in its own body. A sensation which, as it were, penetrates us inwardly so that we feel: that puts us together, gives us the stature, - there we feel the protein substances in us. When we feel: that makes us indifferent to our inner isolation, that lifts us, as it were, above our form, that makes us more phlegmatic towards our inner human feelings, So if a bit of phlegm is added to one's own sensation in relation to this own sensation - these sensations differ very strongly in an anthroposophical development - this last sensation stems from the experience of the fatty substance in the physical shell. So the inner experience also becomes more complicated in relation to the physical shell.

This is particularly noticeable when it comes to experiencing the starch substance or the sugar substance. Sugar is particularly characteristic. Sugar initially differs very strongly from other substances in terms of taste. This differentiation can be noticed very well in ordinary life, not only in children, but also sometimes in older people in the preference that exists for sugar substance; but the differentiation usually goes no further than the taste. When the soul goes through a development, then it experiences everything that it absorbs or has in itself in terms of sugar substance, like something that gives it inner stability, what supports it internally, which in a sense pervades it with a kind of natural egoity. And in this respect a kind of eulogy may even be given to sugar in a certain respect. Especially those who go through a soul development can often notice that they often even need to take in some sugar, because the soul development has to go towards becoming more and more selfless and selfless. The soul becomes more selfless by itself through a proper anthroposophical development. So that man, who by virtue of his physical shell already has a mission on earth, does not lose the connection between his ego organism and the earth, it is downright good to create a counterbalance in the physical, where egoity is not so important has as in the moral. The consumption of sugar creates - one might say - a kind of innocent egoity, which can form a counterbalance to the necessary selflessness in the moral and spiritual area. Otherwise the temptation would be too easy that man would not only become selfless, but that he would also become dreamy, fantastic, lose the connection with a healthy ability to judge earthly conditions. A certain addition of sugar to the food contributes to this, to give one the possibility to stand with both feet on earth in spite of all ascents into the spiritual worlds, to cultivate a certain healthy view of earth with oneself. would lose the connection with a healthy ability to judge earthly conditions. A certain addition of sugar to the food contributes to this, to give one the possibility to stand with both feet on earth in spite of all ascents into the spiritual worlds, to cultivate a certain healthy view of earth with oneself. would lose the connection with a healthy ability to judge earthly conditions. A certain addition of sugar to the food contributes to this, to give one the possibility to stand with both feet on earth despite all ascents into the spiritual worlds, to cultivate a certain healthy earth view.

You see, things are complicated; but it all gets complicated when one tries to penetrate the real secrets of life. So at times it is precisely the person who has made anthroposophical progress in his soul that he sometimes needs to enjoy sugar so that he is not exposed to false selflessness, namely a loss of his personality. And then he experiences the enjoyment of sugar in such a way that he says: Well, I'll add something to myself that, without my morally degrading myself, gives me a certain stability, a certain egoity, involuntarily, as in a higher instinct. On the whole one can say that the consumption of sugar physically increases the personality of the person. One can assert this so strongly that one will be able to say that people - of course all of this must only be kept within healthy limits - that people who worship sugar in a certain way have it easier to express their personality character in their physical body than those who do not. These things can even lead to an understanding of what can also be observed externally. In countries where the statistics show that little sugar is consumed, people are less endowed with personality than in countries where more sugar is consumed. Go to the countries where people appear more personally, where everyone, so to speak, feels inside themselves, and then from there to countries where people, one might say more of the general folk type, are more impersonal in their external physical nature ,

If we want to have more obvious concepts of this experience of food substances, so to speak, then we can have it in the so-called luxury items. These stimulants are already experienced particularly vividly in external life - coffee, tea to a greater extent; But what the normal person already experiences in coffee and tea is experienced to a much greater extent by those who go through an anthroposophical development. As I said, all of this is neither an agitational for or against coffee, but a representation of things as they are, and I ask that you only accept it in this sense. Coffee already has a stimulating effect on human nature in normal human life, as does tea; only that these excitations, which are exerted by coffee and tea on the organism, to be felt more vividly by the soul that is going through an anthroposophical development. Coffee can be said, for example, that it acts on the human organism in such a way that this human organism thereby lifts its etheric body out of the physical body in a certain way, but in such a way that the physical body is felt as a solid foundation of the etheric body. That is the specific effect of coffee. So, the physical body and the etheric body are somewhat differentiated when enjoying coffee, but in such a way that the physical body, especially in its form properties, is felt under the influence of the coffee as radiating into the etheric body, like a kind of solid basis for what is then brought about by the Etheric body is experienced. This is really not supposed to be an agitation for the enjoyment of coffee; for everything moves on a physical basis, and man would make himself a completely dependent being if he wanted to prepare himself by enjoying this food or luxury item; only the influence of these foods and beverages is to be characterized. But because logical, consistent thinking depends very much on the structure, on the form of the physical body, the peculiar effect of coffee, which, as it were, more sharply shades the physical structure of the physical body, physically promotes logical consistency - it the consumption of coffee promotes the human being, so to speak, physically in his logical consistency, in a consistent thinking that follows the facts. And you can say, even if it may have health concerns, To drink a lot of coffee, so that it is not so uneven, especially for people who want to climb into higher regions of the spiritual life, that it can be quite good to draw the logical consistency from the stimulation by the coffee at times. One would like to say that it seems quite natural that someone who has to write professionally, for example, and cannot quite find the logical sequence from one sentence to another and would like to chew everything out of his pen, that he will be stimulated by enjoying coffee. This seems quite understandable to one who knows how to observe these things down to their occult and mysterious basis. If such enjoyment, since we are once earth citizens, is sometimes necessary according to personal individual circumstances, then it must be emphasized that that coffee enjoyment, with all its damage, can do a lot to improve solidity. Not that it should be recommended as a means of solidity, but it must be said that it is capable of enhancing solidity and that, for example, with someone who develops anthroposophically, if he has the inclination, something is wrong to wander with his thoughts that you don't need to make a bad note when he makes himself a little more solid with coffee.

Things are different with tea. The tea produces a similar effect, a kind of differentiation of a physical nature and an ethereal nature. But in a certain way it turns off the structure of the physical body. The etheric body comes more into its fluctuating rights. Hence, tea makes the thoughts flutter apart and, in a certain way, makes them less suited to joining the facts. It is true that the imagination is stimulated, sometimes not in a very sympathetic sense, by the enjoyment of tea, but not the adaptation to the truth and the adaptation to the solidity of the circumstances. It can therefore be said that it is understandable when in societies where a lot depends on letting go of flashes of thought, that one develop sparkling spirituality, if the suggestion is given by tea; On the other hand, it is also understandable that when tea enjoyment gets out of hand, it creates in a certain way indifference to the demands that can come of man through the healthy structure of his physical earthly body. So that dreamy fantasy and a certain carefree, nonchalant being, a being who likes to ignore the demands of outer solid life, are easily promoted by the enjoyment of tea. And with a soul that is developing in an anthroposophical sense, you don't like to see it when it is enjoying tea, because tea consumption leads to charlatanism more easily than coffee consumption. The latter makes you more solid, the former more charlatan, even if the word is used far too sharply for these things. These are all things

I would just like to add that - you can meditate on it further or try to really experience such things - that if the enjoyment of coffee promotes something like solidity in the physical shell, the enjoyment of tea is more conducive to charlatanism, for example chocolate most of all promotes philistinism. Chocolate can be felt as the actual Philistine drink in the immediate experience when the physical shell becomes more flexible. Chocolate can therefore be recommended, especially at Philistine festivities, and one can then - excuse this contribution - one can understand quite well that one drinks chocolate at family celebrations, birth celebrations, name celebrations, especially in certain circles, at certain festivities . Then, when we consider these things, which are therefore stimulants, this occurs to us in an even more meaningful way, because what is otherwise experienced in relation to the food already throws its rays into the ordinary so-called external normal life, but not only in such a way that one only notices, so to speak, the substantial from which the Body is put together and renews itself again and again, but that one also notices, as was already mentioned yesterday, the inner falling apart, the separation of the organs. This is important, this is meaningful. from which the body is put together and renews itself again and again, but that one also notices, as was already mentioned yesterday, the inward falling apart, the separation of the organs. This is important, this is meaningful. from which the body is put together and renews itself again and again, but that one also notices, as was already mentioned yesterday, the inward falling apart, the separation of the organs. This is important, this is meaningful.

And here it must be emphasized in particular that the experience in relation to the physical shell with the physical heart becomes comprehensible for an occult contemplation. For the occultist, the physical heart of man is an extremely interesting and extremely meaningful organ; for this physical human heart can only be understood if one takes into account the entire mutual relationship, including the spiritual relationship in which the sun stands to the earth. Even when the old sun was a kind of planetary predecessor of the earth after the Saturn period, the relationship that exists today between these two celestial bodies, between the sun and the earth, began to be prepared, so to speak. The relationship between the sun and the earth must be considered in such a way that one can see the earth as it is today, fully conceives of how it first nourishes itself, as it were, from the effects of the sun, how it absorbs and processes these effects of the sun. What the earth absorbs in its solid basic substance in terms of solar forces, what it absorbs in its air and water envelope, in the changing heat conditions, what it absorbs in the light flowing around the earth, what it absorbs itself in that which is no longer physically Somehow what is perceptible as part of the earth in the harmony of the spheres is what the earth absorbs in terms of life forces that it receives directly from the sun, all of which is related to the inner forces that affect the human heart from the bloodstream. Basically, all of these forces act on the bloodstream and from there on the heart. Everything that is external theory in this respect is completely wrong. This external theory today makes the heart a pump that pumps blood through the body, so that in the heart one can see the organ that regulates the blood circulation. The reverse is true. The blood circulation is that which is the original, and in its movements the heart gives an echo of what is going on in the blood circulation. The blood drives the heart, not the other way around, the heart drives the blood. But this whole organism, which is described there and which is concentrated in the heart's activity, is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. which pumps the blood through the body so that one could see in the heart the organ that regulates the blood circulation. The reverse is true. The blood circulation is that which is the original, and in its movements the heart gives an echo of what is going on in the blood circulation. The blood drives the heart, not the other way around, the heart drives the blood. But this whole organism, which is described there and which is concentrated in the heart's activity, is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. which pumps the blood through the body so that one could see in the heart the organ that regulates the blood circulation. The reverse is true. The blood circulation is that which is the original, and in its movements the heart gives an echo of what is going on in the blood circulation. The blood drives the heart, not the other way around, the heart drives the blood. But this whole organism, which is described there and which is concentrated in the heart's activity, is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. The blood circulation is that which is the original, and in its movements the heart gives an echo of what is going on in the blood circulation. The blood drives the heart, not the other way around, the heart drives the blood. But this whole organism, which is described there and which is concentrated in the heart's activity, is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. The blood circulation is that which is the original, and in its movements the heart gives an echo of what is going on in the blood circulation. The blood drives the heart, not the other way around, the heart drives the blood. But this whole organism, which is described there and which is concentrated in the heart's activity, is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. he who is described there and who concentrates in the heart's activity is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart. he who is described there and who concentrates in the heart's activity is nothing other than the human microcosmic mirror image of those macrocosmic effects which the earth only receives from the sun. What the earth has from the sun is reflected in what the blood has to do with the heart.

It is different with the brain, for example. Some of the brain correspondences were mentioned yesterday. The human brain has very little directly to do with what solar effects are on earth. Immediately, I say. Indirectly as an organ of perception, for example by perceiving the external light, the colors; but that's just perception. But directly in its structure, in its inner mobility, in its entire inner life, the brain has little, hardly anything to do with the effects of the sun on the earth; it has much more to do with everything that shines on our earth from that which is outside our solar system; this brain has to do with the cosmic relationships of the entire starry sky, but not with the closer relationships of our solar system. What we have to call brain matter stands in a closer relationship with the moon, but only insofar as the moon is not dependent on the sun, insofar as it has retained its independence from the sun. So that what goes on in our brain corresponds to effects that lie outside of those forces which find their human microcosmic image in our heart. The sun lives in the human heart; what is present outside the sun in the cosmos lives in the human brain. who find their human microcosmic image in our hearts. The sun lives in the human heart; what is present outside the sun in the cosmos lives in the human brain. who find their human microcosmic image in our hearts. The sun lives in the human heart; what is present outside the sun in the cosmos lives in the human brain.

So with regard to both organs, man is a microcosm in that he is surrendered with his heart to the sun's effect on the earth and reflects this, as it were, but with his brain he has inner life that is directly related to the cosmos outside the sun. This is an extremely interesting and meaningful connection. The brain is related to what the sun does on earth only through external perception. But it is precisely this that is overcome in anthroposophical development. Anthroposophical development overcomes the external world of the senses. Therefore the brain is unleashed to an inner life which is so cosmic that even the sun is something too special for something of the sun's effect to take place inside. If a person is surrendered to any imagination in meditation, processes take place in his brain that have nothing to do with the solar system, but correspond to processes outside of our solar system. Hence there is in fact a certain relationship between the heart and the brain as between the sun and the starry sky, and in a certain relationship this is shown in the experience of the anthroposophically developing soul by the fact that this soul is surrendered seriously and withdrawn inwardly purely anthroposophical thought, the heart really forms something like a kind of antipole, enters into a kind of opposition to the - one might say - star brain. This opposition is expressed in the fact that man learns to feel how the heart and brain begin to tread different paths, and how he,

There is a peculiar conception of the whole cosmic position of man if we look at the physical shell and consider how man stands here on earth. Everything that the sun has to make out with the earth lives in him through his blood system and heart. And if he is only inwardly surrendered to what he needs his physical brain for as an instrument on earth, then world processes live inside that take place outside of our solar system. We will have to make it understandable that man has a completely new experience with regard to heart and brain. His sensations really differentiate, so that he learns to feel everything that brain processes are, one might say, in that quiet walk that the night sky shows with its stars, and that he feels the mobility of the solar system in his heart. From this you see at the same time a path that becomes an important path at a higher level of initiation, because you see, as it were, the gates that open from the human being into the cosmos. The person who emerges from himself through a higher development - as it was himself described in the exoteric lectures - who looks back on his own body, who learns to fully recognize the processes of his physical body, does in fact learn along with the blood circulation the heart's activity is a reflection of the mysterious forces of the solar system, and he gets to know the secrets of the cosmos in the processes of the brain, which he then observes from outside. which becomes an important path at a higher level of initiation, because you see, as it were, the gates that open from humans into the cosmos. The person who emerges from himself through a higher development - as it was himself described in the exoteric lectures - who looks back on his own body, who learns to fully recognize the processes of his physical body, does in fact learn along with the blood circulation the heart's activity is a reflection of the mysterious forces of the solar system, and he gets to know the secrets of the cosmos in the processes of the brain, which he then observes from outside. which becomes an important path at a higher level of initiation, because you see, as it were, the gates that open from humans into the cosmos. The person who emerges from himself through a higher development - as it was himself described in the exoteric lectures - who looks back on his own body, who learns to fully recognize the processes of his physical body, does in fact learn along with the blood circulation the heart's activity is a reflection of the mysterious forces of the solar system, and he gets to know the secrets of the cosmos in the processes of the brain, which he then observes from outside.

The things that I say here in the last sentence are related to a remark I made once in Copenhagen and which was then included in my book "The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Mankind". You can infer from this that in a certain respect even the structure of the brain is a kind of mirror image of the position of the heavenly bodies which is present at human birth for that point on earth where the human being is born. It is useful sometimes to come back to such things from another point of view; for from it you can get a feeling of the breadth of occult science and of the narrow-mindedness of some criticisms which are made when such a remark is made from one point of view or another. Certainly, one can explain such important facts as this one about the reflection of the starry world in the human brain from a certain point of view, and it can seem like arbitrary. When other points of view are added, they are all mutually supportive. And you will still be aware of some - I would like to say - currents of occult science that flow together, and from the flow together you will then more and more also come up with what you will perceive as a full proof, also an external proof of reason for the things which, from just one point of view, might seem daring at times. But from this you can also see the delicacy of the whole human structure. And if you now consider that the human being by ingesting food, binds himself completely to the earth in the ingestion of food, but in turn frees himself from the earth in some substances, especially in the case of plant food, so if you consider that man has to make himself a citizen of the earth precisely through ingestion of food, you will become that Now understand the threefold structure of man in relation to his physical shell. Through his brain he is, as it were, a member of the whole starry sky, through his heart with everything that belongs to it, a member of the sun, through his digestive system and everything that belongs to it, in the other sense, an earthly being. so you will now understand the threefold structure of man in relation to his physical shell. Through his brain he is, as it were, a member of the whole starry sky, through his heart with everything that belongs to it, a member of the sun, through his digestive system and everything that belongs to it, in the other sense, an earthly being. so you will now understand the threefold structure of man in relation to his physical shell. Through his brain he is, as it were, a member of the whole starry sky, through his heart with everything that belongs to it, a member of the sun, through his digestive system and everything that belongs to it, in the other sense, an earthly being.

That, too, can and is experienced when the outer physical shell of the human being becomes more flexible. Man can sin very much through what comes into him only from earth, against what is reflected in him through the pure forces of the cosmos. Man can, for example, by causing disturbances through external nutrition, the purely earthly laws, which work within digestion, which continue to work like the solar laws in heart activity and like the cosmic laws outside the solar system in brain activity - To a certain extent, man can sin very strongly through his nourishment against the cosmic activities in his brain, and this can be experienced by the anthroposophically developing soul, especially at the moment of waking up. During sleep it also happens that the digestive activity extends into the brain, sprays into the brain. When you are awake, the thinking forces work the brain; then the digestive activity of the brain takes a back seat. When thinking stops during sleep, the digestive activity affects the consciousness, and when the person wakes up and feels an echo of it, then experience can very easily be a real barometer, especially with the developing soul, for the healthy or unhealthy of nutrition . Oh, man feels this, as it were, being drawn from his organism into the brain in dulling, stabbing feelings, feelings that can sometimes appear so when he has enjoyed something wrong, such as - let's say - small anesthetic centers in the brain. All of this is experienced in the finest way by the anthroposophically developing soul. And the moment of awakening is of tremendous importance, I mean in relation to the perception of the digestive health of the physical shell. In ever finer and finer sensations that are localized within the head, the human being perceives whether he is behaving contrary to the cosmic laws outside of our solar system in his digestion or whether he is in harmony with them.

These considerations will gradually lead us over to the changes that take place in the human etheric or astral body through esoteric or anthroposophical development.

Source: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19130321p00.html