Blut Anhängsel
Neben Wasser und Feuer galt in alten Zeiten Blut als ein Mittel der rituellen Reinigung.
Blut ist der "Lebenssaft"/die verjüngende Kraft. Blut und Wasser ergänzen einander in der chinesischen Symbolik von Yang und Yin als komplementäre Erscheinungen. Blut symbolisiert auch die inneren Qualitäten des Feuers und der Hitze und Kraft der Sonne. In einigen Mythen der uralo-altaischen Stämme Zentralasiens endet die Welt im Feuer/weil ein heiliger Baum stirbt/der im Fallen sein Blut vergießt/das sich in Feuer verwandelt.
Die Tartaren glauben/dass ein von Gott gesandter Held/der den Teufel bekämpfen soll/sein Blut über die Erde gießen wird. Dieses verwandelt sich in Feuer. Nach einem deutschen Gedicht des 9. Jahrhunderts und einer russischen Offenbarung werde das von Elias im Kampf mit dem Antichrist vergossene Blut sich in Feuer wandeln und die Welt verschlingen.
Blut und Nerv
In besonders eindrucksvoller Art
finden sich die Tätigkeiten der einzelnen menschlichen Organismen in Bezug auf
den Gesamtorganismus bei der Blut und Nervenbildung Indem die Blutbildung in
der Fortgestaltung der aufgenommenen Nahrungsstoffe erfolgt steht der ganze
Blutbildungsvorgang unter dem Einfluss der Ich Organisation Die Ich
Organisation wirkt von den Vorgängen die in Begleitung bewusster Empfindung in
der Zunge im Gaumen vor sich gehen bis in die unbewussten und unterbewussten
Vorgänge hinein - in Pepsin-, Pankreas-, Gallenwirkung usw. - Dann tritt die
Wirkung der Ich-Organisation zurück, und es ist bei der weiteren Umwandlung der
Nahrungssubstanz in Blutsubstanz vorzüglich der astralische Leib tätig. Das
geht so weiter, bis sich das Blut mit der Luft - mit dem Sauerstoff - im
Atmungsprozess begegnet. An dieser Stelle vollzieht der Ätherleib seine
Haupttätigkeit. In der im Ausatmen begriffenen Kohlensäure hat man es, bevor
sie den Körper verlassen hat, mit vorzugsweise nur lebender - nicht
empfindender und nicht toter - Substanz zu tun. (Lebend ist alles, was die
Tätigkeit des Ätherleibes in sich trägt.) Von dieser lebenden Kohlensäure geht
die Hauptmasse aus dem Organismus fort; ein kleiner Teil aber wirkt noch weiter
im Organismus in die Vorgänge hinein, die in der Kopforganisation ihren
Mittelpunkt haben. Dieser Teil zeigt eine starke Neigung, ins Leblose,
Unorganische überzugehen, obgleich er nicht ganz leblos wird. Im Nervensystem
liegt das Entgegengesetzte vor. Im sympathischen Nervensystem, das die
Verdauungsorgane durchsetzt, waltet vornehmlich der ätherische Leib. Die
Nerven-Organe, die da in Betracht kommen, sind von sich aus vorzüglich nur
lebende Organe.
Die astralische und die
Ich-Organisation wirken auf sie nicht innerlich organisierend, sondern von
außen. Daher ist der Einfluss der in diesen Nervenorganen wirksamen Ich- und
astralischen Organisation ein starker. Affekte und Leidenschaften haben eine
dauernde, bedeutsame Wirkung auf den Sympathikus.
Kummer, Sorgen richten dieses
Nervensystem allmählich zugrunde.
Das Rückenmarks-Nervensystem mit allen
seinen Verzweigungen ist dasjenige, in welches die astralische Organisation
vorzüglich eingreift. Es ist daher der Träger dessen; was im Menschen seelisch
ist, der Reflexvorgänge, nicht aber dessen, was im Ich, in dem selbstbewussten
Geiste vorgeht.
Die eigentlichen Gehirnnerven sind
diejenigen, die der Ich-Organisation unterliegen. Bei ihnen treten die
Tätigkeiten der ätherischen und astralischen Organisation zurück.
Man sieht, im Bereiche des
Gesamtorganismus entstehen dadurch drei Gebiete. In einem unteren wirken die
innerlich vorzugsweise vom ätherischen Organismus durchwirkten Nerven mit der
Blutsubstanz zusammen, die vornehmlich der Tätigkeit der Ich-Organisation
unterliegt. In diesem Gebiete liegt während der embryonalen und nachembryonalen
Entwicklungsepoche der Ausgangspunkt für alle Organbildungen, die mit der
inneren Belebung des menschlichen Organismus zusammenhängen. Während der
Embryonalbildung wird dieses dann noch schwache Gebiet von dem umgebenden Mutterorganismus
mit den belebenden und bildenden Einflüssen versorgt. Es kommt dann ein
mittleres Gebiet in Betracht, in dem Nervenorgane, die von der astralischen
Organisation beeinflusst sind zusammen wirken mit Blutvorgängen die ebenfalls
von dieser astralischen Organisation und in ihrem oberen Teil von der
ätherischen abhängig sind Hier liegt wahrend der Bildungsperiode des Menschen
der Ausgangspunkt für die Entstehung der Organe welche die äußere und innere
Beweglichkeit vermitteln z B für alle Muskelbildung aber auch für alle Organe;
die nicht eigentliche Muskeln sind und die doch die Beweglichkeit verursachen -
Ein oberes Gebiet ist dasjenige, wo die unter dem innerlich-organisierenden Ich
stehenden Nerven zusammenwirken mit den Blutvorgängen, die eine starke Neigung
dazu haben ins Leblose Mineralische überzugehen Wahrend der Bildungsepoche des
Menschen liegt hier der Ausgangspunkt für die Knochenbildung und für alles
andere das dem menschlichen Körper als Stützorgan dient.
Man wird das Gehirn des Menschen nur
begreifen, wenn man in ihm die knochenbildende Tendenz sehen kann die im
allerersten Entstehen unterbrochen wird Und man durch schaut die Knochenbildung
nur dann wenn man in ihr eine völlig zu Ende gekommene Gehirn Impulswirkung
erkennt die von außen von den Impulsen des mittleren Organismus durchzogen wird
wo astralisch bedingte Nervenorgane mit ätherisch bedingter Blutsubstanz
zusammen tätig sind In der Knochenasche die mit der ihr eigenen Gestaltung
zurückbleibt, wenn man den Knochen durch Verbrennung behandelt, sind die
Ergebnisse des obersten Gebietes der Menschenorganisation vorhanden In der
Knorpelsubstanz, die übrig bleibt, wenn man den Knochen der Wirkung verdünnter
Salzsäure unterwirft hat man das Ergebnis der Impulse des mittleren Gebietes.
Das Skelett ist das physische Bild der
Ich Organisation. Die nach dem Leblos-Mineralischen hinstrebende
menschlich-organische Substanz unterliegt in der Knochenentstehung ganz der
Ich-Organisation. Im Gehirn ist das Ich als geistige Wesenheit tätig. Seine
formbildende, ins Physische hinein wirkende Kraft wird aber da ganz vom
ätherischen Organisieren, ja von den Eigenkräften des Physischen überwältigt.
Dem Gehirn liegt die organisierende Kraft des Ich nur leise zugrunde; sie geht
im Lebendigen und in den physischen Eigenwirkungen unter. Gerade das ist der
Grund, warum das Gehirn der Träger der geistigen Ich-Wirkung ist, dass die
organisch-physische Betätigung da von der Ich-Organisation nicht in Anspruch
genommen wird, diese daher als solche völlig frei sich betätigen kann. Das
Knochenskelett dagegen ist zwar das vollkommene physische Bild der
Ich-Organisation; diese aber erschöpft sich in dem physischen Organisieren, so
dass von ihr als geistige Betätigung nichts mehr übrigbleibt. Die Vorgänge in
den Knochen sind daher die am meisten unbewussten.
Die Kohlensäure, die mit dem
Atmungsprozess nach außen gestoßen wird, ist innerhalb des Organismus noch
lebende Substanz; sie wird von der in dem mittleren Nervensystem verankerten
astralischen Tätigkeit ergriffen und nach außen ausgeschieden. Der Teil der
Kohlensäure, der mit dem Stoffwechsel nach dem Kopfe geht, wird da durch die
Verbindung mit dem Kalzium geneigt gemacht, in die Wirkungen der
Ich-Organisation einzutreten. Es wird dadurch der kohlensaure Kalk unter dem
Einfluss der von der Ich-Organisation innerlich impulsiveren Kopfnerven auf den
Weg zur Knochenbildung getrieben.
Die aus den Nahrungssubstanzen entstehenden Stoffe: Myosin und Myogen haben die Tendenz, sich im Blute abzusetzen; sie sind zunächst astralisch bedingte Substanzen, die mit dem Sympathikus in Wechselwirkung stehen, der innerlich vom ätherischen Leib organisiert ist. Diese beiden Eiweißstoffe werden aber auch zum Teil ergriffen von der Betätigung des mittleren Nervensystems, das unter dem Einfluss des astralischen Leibes steht. Dadurch gehen sie eine Verwandtschaft ein mit Zersetzungsprodukten des Eiweißes, mit Fetten, mit Zucker und zuckerähnlichen Substanzen. Das befähigt sie, unter dem Einfluss des mittleren Nervensystems auf den Weg in die Muskelbildung zu kommen.
[Rosina Sonnenschmidt]
Homöopathische Blutbehandlung. Blutmittel einwertig im Repertorium:
Im Heilungsprozess chronischer Krankheiten gibt es immer wieder die Notwendigkeit, das Blut und seine Immunstärke und die Qualität seiner Bestandteile zu beachten. Die einwertigen Mittel sind hier so zu verstehen,
dass sie organotrop (= auf bestimmte Organe gerichtet bzw. einwirkend) in bestimmten Situationen oder bei bestimmten Krankheiten hilfreich sind. Sie gehören nicht so sehr zur generellen Behandlungsstrategie,
eher zur der nicht minder wichtigen akuten Situation. Die Wertigkeit der Blutmittel ist daher nicht rein quantitativ, das heißt hinsichtlich ihrer Häufigkeit des Einsatzes zu hierarchisieren.
Die einwertigen Arzneien werden vielleicht seltener eingesetzt, aber sie haben eine durchschlagende Wirkungskraft, wenn sie im rechten Moment gewählt werden.
Auch bei chronischen Krankheiten gibt es akute Zustände, ein Heilungsprozess ist vielschichtig. Die große Linie wird vielleicht miasmatisch oder konstitutionell vorgegeben.
Aber darin spielen sich viele kleinere Prozesse ab, die ebenfalls bedacht werden sollten. Dafür sind die einwertigen Blutmittel ideal geeignet, sozusagen „an Ort und Stelle“ Probleme zu beheben und den Fortgang der Heilung
zu bewirken.
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Queb. (= Aspidospermia) |
O2-Mangel in den Zellen |
Cardiales Asthma. Tuberkulose Hämochromatose/Hämophilie/Anämie |
Tuberkulin |
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__________________________________ |
________________________________________ |
_______________________________________ |
____________________________________ |
______________________________ |
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Rektum, Uterus. AIDS,
Alkoholismus, schwere Epilepsie |
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Uterus Tub Croc-s Blutgerinnung erhöht Thrombozytose |
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Blutungen aus dem Uterus |
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Leukopenie Leukozytose. Maligne Diphtherie, Diabetes- Gangrän, heftige Entzündungszustände und dicke
Eiterbildung. Streptokokkenbefall |
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Gerinnungs-/Blutbildungsstörung in der Milz |
Eisenmangelanämie, hämolytische Anämie, schwarze, dünne Blutung aus Darm, Uterus |
Tuberkulin |
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Ham. |
Eisenmangelanämie, hämolytische Anämie, schwarze, dünne Blutung aus Darm, Uterus |
Blutung hellrot o. klumpig aus Körperöffnungen, Mund, Magen, Rektum, Lungen, Schleimhaut, Uterus. (Thrombo)phlebitis |
Tuberkulin |
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Mangel
an Prothrombin |
Körper-öffnungen, Nieren, Lungen. Hepatitis
durch Alkoholismus |
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Erythrozytopenie, Hypochrome Anämie und Hämoglobinämie. Diabetes mellitus und insipidus skrofulöse Kachexie, Osteoporose schneidender
Milzschmerz |
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Mangel
an Prothrombin |
Spondylarthrose
(HWS) mit Taubheitsgefühl |
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Panzytopenie, Aplastische, megaloblastische Anämie.
Lupus erythematodes |
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Merl. |
Störung der Blutbildung |
Krebs: Hoden, Magen, Trachom Milz-Hyperämie, Milzschmerz nagend |
Tuberkulin |
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Erythrozytenreifung |
Hämoglobin-ämie. Meningitis, Apoplex, viele Stimmstörungen (monoton, Aphasie), Kehlkopflähmung. Tub Mittel Blutpathologie Indikationen Miasmatische Dynamik |
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Mangel
an Prothrombin |
koaguliert nicht, Hämophilie. Krebs: Blase, Hoden,
Mamma |
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Chronische, interstitielle Nephritis. Renale Hypertonie. Typhus. Starke Gedächtnis-
und Konzentrationsstörungen |
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Tuberkulose,
hereditäre Syphilinie |
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Gerinnung verlangsamt, |
Darm, Rektum, Schleimhaut, Uterus. Diabetes mellitus und Neuropathien. Zerebrale Arteriosklerose |
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Darm, Rektum, Schleimhaut, Uterus. Diabetes mellitus und Neuropathien. Zerebrale Arteriosklerose |
Anämie durch Milzerkrankung, perniziöse Anämie, Uterusblutung bei Candida albicans. Diabetes mellitus, Geschwürbildung und
Rheuma. |
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‡ It can be seen how
blood links both to the 'cephalic' pole (= Oberpol) through its burden of
dissolved minerals like Ca and P (= bones and nerves)
and with the rhythmic centre carrying O,
Carb-diox and sugar.
Linked to blood is the lymphatic system,
burdening with fats and so another link to P, nerves and the cephalic pole.
Lymph would be seen as a link
between blood/metabolic pole (= Rhythmisch system) and the animal pole (= Unterpol), and thus part of the rhythmic centre. ‡
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße
Frei nach: Hans Broder von Laue
The Sal - Sulfur polarity in the blood
So far, we have considered many details concerning the blood and
suggested an ordering system. Division into a cellular and a plasmatic aspect
emerged right at the beginning. With the cellular elements reference was made
to progressive devitalization - from the lymphocytes (capable of
division/highly reactive/able to migrate), to the thrombocytes that develop
when the nucleus is lost, and the erythrocytes with their low water
concentration and maximum devitalization (loss of the nucleus and 95% of cell
plasma). Essentially, form is retained by all cell elements in the process of
devitalization. The vital (small) lymphocytes (quite spherical), the granulocytes
(oval to round), thrombocytes and erythrocytes (round and flat). Hemoglobin
(iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all
vertebrates) is deposited in this form and the cell then persists in this
substantially fixed state for about 120 days. This process of a living,
evolving entity becoming frozen in a persistent form gives rise to an organ
that is able to expose itself, to the greatest possible extent, to the outside
air and take it into itself. We may call this "giving oneself up to the
outside world“.
Such openness to the outside world, on one hand, and the process of
development, on the other, have been known as the Sal process. No other
organ/function in the human system has this dual aspect of "dying into
form" and "being open to the world" to such an extreme degree as
the red blood cell. In the lung, the blood (red cells) is exposed to the
greatest possible degree to the outside world; the process of oxygen coming
into the blood from the air we breathe is referred to as passive diffusion and
proceeds at high speed. Active life processes designed to overcome anything
foreign hardly intervene at all. In its genesis and function, the red blood
cell is the Sal pole among blood constitutents.
At the other extreme, it has not so far been possible to create an
ordered system for the blood proteins.
Classification based on cell characteristics: 1. immunoglobulins, 2.
inflammation proteins, 3. coagulation factors, 4. and inhibitory/transport
proteins.
Metalloproteins (Metalloproteins have many different functions in cells,
such as enzymes, transport and storage proteins, and signal transduction
proteins. Indeed, about one quarter to one third of all proteins require metals
to carry out their functions. The metal ion is usually coordinated with N, O or
S-atoms) represent one extreme in the series. In the same lecture, R.S.
characterized the Sulfur tendency - again speaking of both form and functional
quality (form being shown as "formlessness in a state of flux" and functional
capacity as "interiorizing imponderables“). In the classification used for
the blood these two characteristics apply to inhibitory/transport proteins,
above all metallo-proteins. Imponderable trace elements are interiorized in
formless proteins and prevented from developing their own processual activity
in the blood. The highly specialized metallo-proteins are thus on the Sulfur
side of the blood.
Among transport proteins we have a sub-classification, with blood salts
representing the Sal pole. Salts tend to be open to the outside world in
osmosis, but they do not assume rigid form. Albumin (= Eiweiß) is the mediator
in this sub-classification.
The immune system with its cellular and humoral components is mediates
between rigid Sal conformation and the dissolution characteristic of flowing
protein, functional openness to the outside world and the way this lies hidden
at the Sulfur pole. If there is infection, the immune system is open to live
influences from the outside world. Immunity develops as the organism's active
response. The ability to learn something new, which exists at the level of
unconscious life processes, correlates with the embryonic gesture of
development.
Lymphocytes (w) act as early
embryonic blood cells. Functional maturity is gained with practically no aging;
serum is actively secreted, powers of centrifugal and centripetal migration are
retained, as is the ability to divide in the periphery. Retention of such
embryonic qualities makes the specific immune system highly functional. It is
the last to mature, both ontogenetically (Ontogeny is that branch of life
science which deals with the study of origin and development of an organism
from fertilized ovum to its mature form. In more general terms) and
phylo-genetically, preserving its wide variety of and capacity for development,
mobility and vitality. This middle system in the blood holds the balance
between blood cells that tend to die off and the specialized blood proteins. It
is the Mercury quality of a living whole.
Here, you have two opposite states in the outer world of nature, the Sal
principle of action and the phosphoric principle of action (Sulfur). Between
them is the Mercurial principle of action... The mediating principle in the
outer world of nature includes everything that neither gives itself up strongly
the way the Sal principle does, nor powerfully interiorizes imponderables,
but... holds the balance between these two activities by seeking to achieve the
droplet form (R.S. 25 March 1920).
The form quality of the mercurial middle presents in the blood in the
"droplet form;" the functional middle between "giving itself up
to the outside world" and the hiding, interiorizing of imponderables
reveals itself in new immune responses and learning after every infection.
The principle referred to as "the Mercurial" that seeks to
achieve the droplet form [always there in protein constituents (R.S. 1923)].
The erythrocytes (= white blood
corpuscles) are full of life. They keep milling around in the human blood...
They surge through the blood vessels like the blood.... There they become...
gourmets and go as far as the surface of the body. They crawl around everywhere
in the body which has cells full of life in its blood, the white corpuscles,
which want to live and live and live (R.S. 1922).
This characterization does not relate to all white blood cells, since
granu-locytes no longer have that vitality. He was speaking of the lymphocytes.
The blood as a whole shows inner polarization into a Sal and a Sulfur side,
both highly specialized. This specialization evolved in 3 stages during
embryonic development, with no further change possible after this. Both Sal and
Sulfur side are old, specialized and (ontogenetically) not capable of further
development.
The young mercurial process is apparent in the reactive immune system
which is capable of change. The nonspecific inflammatory response system and
the coagulation system are metamorphic stages between the two extremes on one
hand and the mercurial middle principle on the other.
Life processes in the blood organ
The seven life processes: breathing, warming, nutrition, separation,
maintenance, growth, reproduction, as functional organs of the living organism
were described by R.S. in 1911 and 1916. As "process organs" the
seven processes enable the human being to relate to the outside world. The
activities of the seven processes are briefly characterized below, to provide a
background against which we may consider the blood organ.
The first 3 processes refer to the activity the organism develops in
dealing with foreign influences from the environment. A common factor is that
the organism has to evolve energies that enable it to overcome foreign nature.
1 Breathing (taking in)
This life process reveals the activity the living organism must develop
to take in the environment and make it its own, be it solid or liquid foods,
the air we breathe, warmth or cold, etc.
Whenever the environment enters into the organism by force - in
injuries, bums, poisoning - this overcomes the intake process activity.
Infection following external injury prevents intake, but human receptivity for
the agents responsible for cyclic infectious diseases has the
"intake" activity as a precondition for such diseases.
2 Warming (adapting)
Here, the organism's activity makes qualitative changes in all forces
coming from the outside world. Foods are actively changed. The organism
initially uses tools that can be physically defined, with the configuration of
the food destroyed by chewing, shaped into boles for swallowing, liquefied with
the help of saliva and other secretions, with the temperature actively adapted
to that of the inner organism by warming or cooling the food. A similar quality
of active adaptation is seen in the widening and narrowing of the pupil to
adapt the degree of light to the organism.
3. Nutrition (repelling, analysing, destroying)
The characteristics of environmental factors are pushed back even
further and completely overcome. The organism uses chemical agents to break
down the inner qualities of substances. Foods are broken down in the
gastrointestinal tract with the aid of acids and bases, enzymes and immunoglobulins and cells. The foreign nature
of the food is completely overcome, which is the precondition for
interiorization.
In the eye, light still destroys the visual purple but is then
completely absorbed and extinguished in qualitative terms in the pigment layer.
Here the same life process is used to repel the light.
Acids, enzymes and immunoglobulins are used to degrade foreign organisms
in inflammatory processes. This is the same process again, though in a
different site and with different tools.
As the polar opposite to these three activities directed against the
foreign environment, the organism generates three life processes that enable it
to take an active part in the outside world. This is most clearly apparent in
the 7th life process.
7 Reproduction (renewing)
The reproductive process causes a new organism to mature and be born. A
new organism is created within the organism, becoming progressively more alien,
and born into the world. Producing a child calls for a maximum of anabolic
powers. In spatial terms, this process is the polar opposite of the first, the
intake process. This was from outside in; reproduction is always from inside
out. Complete renewal of the organism itself within a 7-year period also
reflects this life process of reproduction.
6 Growth (growing)
The life process of growing is a second building-up process. It comes to
expression not only in enlargement but particularly in progressive improvement
in all organs, so that they can adequately meet environmental demands:
development of trabecular structure in bone as we come upright and there
has to be load-carrying capacity, the strengthening of muscles through work, or
the increase in red blood cells to adapt to high altitudes - the organism grows
into the task it has been given. The life process of growing results in
improved performance. It utilizes the weekly and the monthly rhythm.
5 Maintenance (maintaining)
The life process of maintaining can be perceived to be the weakest of
the three up-building processes. No longer is a new organism created
(reproduction), nor function improved (growing), but the process of maintenance
enables the organism to regain the quality and quantity that existed prior to
degradation. The organism more or less regains its earlier performance level in
sleep or during breaks from work. The process is involved in maintenance of
blood sugar levels just as much as in the repolarization of action potentials:
all short-term building-up processes, including night-time sleep are
maintenance processes.
4 Separation (separating)
The middle one of the life processes (= separation), is hardest to
characterize. Secretion of saliva, gastric juice, etc. creates tools for the
life processes of adapting and destroying. Saliva with a high enzyme level is
the tool for bread digestion, saliva rich in mucin deals with the milk that is
our food, the sweat on our skin permits adaptation to high outside
temperatures. The process of separation provides the necessary tools for these
life processes that break down foreign nature directed to the environment.
In a similar way, hormones are secreted as a tool for the building-up
processes of maintenance, growing and renewal. Between these inward-directed
glandular activities and those directed outward, which we mentioned earlier,
the main function of the secretory process is to build up the mineral
and fluid food units step by step to become human substance. R.S. characterized
this building-up stream to the effect that substances come qualitatively alive
in the sphere of lung and heart, with carbon dioxide exhaled.
In the sphere of kidneys and nerves, substance grows able to facilitate
processes that sustain the soul, with elimination of urine a correlated
process.
In a final stage, the substance is in the field of tension between liver
and sense organs and ready to be taken hold of and configured by the human I. Elimination of bile is the process
going to the outside. This gradual refinement
of matter in the human being is always happening in the blood. With the
aid of the blood, food units are taken hold of in the intestine and
metamorphosed into living body substance sustaining the soul principle and responding
to the I. This ascending
metamorphosis is matched by descending, eliminatory activity producing
excretions. Blood is thus the key organ for separation, holding the
middle/intermediary position among the life processes.
It provides tools for acting outwards against the foreign nature of the
environment and, on the other hand, tools for acting inwards in building up the
body. It "potentizes" substances in the human being, taking them from
their ponderable state to live quality, a state where they become vehicles for
soul and spirit.
Considering the blood against this background, it is immediately
apparent that the life processes active in the different blood functions are
vastly different.
Let us take the transport/inhibitory function. The blood takes up
substances in infinitely many sites. In the lung it is most open to the
environment, taking in air. In the organism it takes up substances everywhere.
This intake is
only possible because all the different substances are immediately
wrapped up, so that they will not react according to their inherent nature,
which only comes into play again when the blood lets go of the substances,
separating them out - oxygen in the tissues, transferring iron in the bone
marrow, carbohydrates in the liver, etc. The maintenance and growth function of
the blood takes effect in liver and bone marrow, not in the blood itself. Nor
do we
find adaptation and repulsion processes in the blood that might affect
the blood itself. The inhibitory/transport function involves only the first (=
intake) and fourth (= separation) life processes.
The coagulation system serves to maintain the surface areas of the
organism to keep inner and outer worlds apart. The system is activated when an
injury has occurred. The adaptation process comes into play as viscosity
changes, with fibrin hardened. It does not go against the environment
but lets the vitality of the blood be frozen to a point where maintenance of
the whole is assured. This, the second process, is activated so that the fifth
(maintenance) may come into action.
The system of nonspecific inflammation in the organism becomes active
when foreign life has entered into the organism or tissues and been destroyed.
Pathogens enter without active involvement of the organism. As local
inflammation develops, the blood slows down and grows denser, changing its pH
(= adaptation), granulocytes migrate to the site and provide tools for chemical
destruction of the pathogens. Apart from the adaptation process,
this also involves repulsion. The goal of the inflammatory process is
once again maintenance of the organism's integrity. No new ability (= growth)
is gained. The organism uses the second and third life processes (= adaptation
and repulsion) to safeguard the fifth (= maintenance).
The organism uses additional life processes in specific inflammations.
Specific infection is not merely a passive process. Hoering writes:
"Susceptibility, being species-related, is in the first place something
quantitative.
The host either has the capacity to provide accommodation for the live
guest or he does not“. Susceptibility or lack of susceptibility to a particular
infection reflects the power of the organism to receive the infectious agent
or not to receive it. Once an infection has "taken" (intake)
adaptation or repulsion processes are activated in the first stage. These are
not in the site of infection, as in the case of local infections, but after
generalization in
the RES and then manifest in another organ (organ manifestation).
Numerous intake and separation processes are required in between, until the
maintenance process and the growth process take effect in the healing stage.
Developing a specific immunity, the organism grows into a new capacity. (I am unable
to say if the renewal process is also involved in recovery from an acute cyclic
infection. I do not have enough criteria to differentiate
clearly between renewal and growth.) In a process of specific
inflammation, the organism uses the first, second and third life processes (=
intake, adaptation, repulsion) and achieves a new state of health through the
fifth
and sixth (= maintenance, growth).
VII Blood as the instrument of the I-organization
Below, the ordering system given for the blood will be considered in the
light of additional findings form the science of the spirit. In his lectures on
Occult Physiology, R.S. spoke of how the physiological composition of the
blood changes when one goes through inner schooling (macrocosmic or
microcosmic). He emphasized that the blood has a dual relationship to the
environment.
On one hand, the blood only enters into relationship with the outside
world in such a way that anything it receives from it has been stripped of its
own inherent laws; on the other hand, it enters into a relationship that
enables
it to approach the outside world directly. This happens when the blood
flows through the lung and comes in contact with the outside air. It is then
quickened by the oxygen from the outside air and configured in such a way
that nothing comes up against this configuration to weaken it; the
oxygen from the air does indeed approach the instrument of the human I in a way
wholly in accord with the essential nature of the I.
Substances brought to the blood from below, through nutrition, must be
carefully filtered so that nothing of their outside world character takes
effect in the blood. In the lung, however, air from outside the human being
comes
to the blood directly (intake). The foreign nature of the air is only adapted
to the organism by actively changing its humidity and temperature (adaptation).
The foreign character of foods is changed in the upper gastrointestinal tract
to remove all inherent laws from proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The inherent
nature of metals needs to be specifically inhibited and covered over in the
blood.
The two ways of relating to the environment - openness to the
environment in the Sal pole of the blood (red blood cells) and the shrouding of
substance processes in the Sulfur pole - are polar opposites in the transport
system
of the blood, like positive and negative electricity.
In a later lecture, R.S. differentiated the activity of the human I into thinking, feeling and will
intent and described the effects these had on the blood (27 March 1911):
You will never hear those who base themselves on true occultism
contradict the statement that with all these processes, which occur in our
inner life in waking, day-time consciousness and fall into the category of
processes connected with thinking, feeling or will impulses, truly affect
material processes - live or other - in the organism, so that we are able to
find material processes in the organism that correspond to everything that
happens in the
soul. He went on to say that with thinking, a subtle salting-out process
occurs mainly in the nerves but also in the blood, comparing it to crystals
forming in a saturated solution:
The process of thinking is like a process of depositing salts due to an
activity of the blood and, in turn, causing irritation of the nervous system;
an organic process, therefore, that occurs on the border of the blood and of
the nervous system... We know now that everything we have called conscious
thinking activity, brought about by the I, comes to expression in a kind of
extremely subtle salt deposition in the blood.
If we ask ourselves in which area of the blood this process takes place,
attention focuses on substances such as calcium and magnesium which are partly
ionized and in solution and partly withdrawn from specific ionic
function, which has outside world qualities, by being hidden in albumin
or other inhibitory proteins. A specific amount of free calcium ions must be
present in the serum to make normal consciousness possible. We cannot,
of course, expect complete crystallization in the blood, but the ionic
state is the precondition for and, hence, the first step towards
crystallization. We cannot be sure if R.S. was referring to this release of
blood salts from the enveloping proteins when he spoke of the physiological
effects of thinking. Nor has the significance of anions (ist ein negativ
geladenes Ion) been considered. The free blood salts do, however, come closest
to the process of crystallizing out in the blood.
In the same lecture, substantial changes in the blood are also described
for feeling:
The thinking process involves solid, salt-like principles being
withdrawn from a fluid principle and being deposited. Feeling has to do with
some particles in the blood changing from a more fluid to a denser state.
The substance itself assume a denser condition due to coagulation.
A kind of blood coagulation is given as an image for feeling,
characterizing the processes at the substantial level. A bit later R.S.
compared the effect feeling has on the blood with the coagulation of liquid
protein.
We are not in the habit of considering feeling in conjunction with the
coagulation system, with the different viscosity of protein in the blood. It is
remarkable that in the ordering system of the blood under discussion the
coagulation system follows on from the inhibitory/transport system just as
feeling follows thinking in the order of soul processes. R.S. then went on to
relate will impulses to warmth processes in the blood. He spoke of the
vital influences powers of soul have on the blood when they come into
effect.
We now need to take some elements from another lecture, before going
back to the Prague lectures. In a lecture given to doctors on 7 January 1924
(GA 316), R.S. spoke of the effect powers of soul have during embryonic
development. Powers of thought, not yet individualized, make the bones
crystallize out from living matter. Sentience (= feeling) prior to birth is
also referred to as a process of coagulation: blood coagulates into the mobile
muscle. Will impulses as courage to act, courage before action is taken,
create temperature differentiations before birth and hence the form and
configuration of internal organs. The will that performs the action reveals
itself in temperature differentiations in bodily development that are
connected with the functions of organs. In both lectures, the crystallizing and
coagulating processes are presented as running parallel to thinking and
feeling respectively - in organ development before birth (bone and
muscle) and in the way the soul uses the body (crystallizing and coagulation in
the blood). In Occult Physiology (27 March 1911), the influence of the will
on the body is described in a uniform way:
The physical process that corresponds to our will impulses is a kind of
warming process causing a rise of temperature in the organism, letting it grow
hot, as it were, in a certain respect. As this process is closely bound up
with the whole pulsation of the blood, we may say that will impulses are
connected with a rise in blood temperature.
Any will impulse changes the temperature system of warmth shell and core
in a specific way. The physiology of the temperature process that goes with
every will impulse and of the generation of heat with every movement
is well established. We are not in the habit of seeing this as tracks
left by the will. The same temperature phenomena are pathological if there is
inflammation. Will activity is revealed in the stages of pus development with
its local (nonspecific) inflammation. A hot abscess develops quickly and
then heals. A cold abscess persists for a long time; the organism does not have
enough healing powers of will. These are the extremes of local
inflammation. The heal activity of tire will gains a new quality with
specific inflammations such as acute cyclic infectious diseases where febrile
reactions follow a strict time sequence. These are mainly childhood diseases
and are inevitably connected with the functions of the specific immune
system. The temperature curve reflects the disease-specific activity of the
l-will in overcoming the disease and finally recovery (27 March 1920).
This duality of temperature processes can be related to the duality of
courage to will and will-determined action; here the local increases in
temperature seen with nonspecific infections correspond to will prior to
action,
and the changes in the relationship of warmth core and periphery with
cyclic febrile conditions to I-determined action.
We see that, in the ordering system for blood proteins, thinking may be
reflected in the forming of salts, feeling in the coagulation of proteins, and
will impulses in differentiated temperature processes. All these processes
involve the degradation of vitality, and there must be counter processes
to ensure maintenance. The balances created between shrouding and release of
salts, coagulation and fibrinolysis, activators and inhibitors of
inflammation create the conditions under which the I can come to realization in thinking, feeling and taking action.
In addition to soul processes that appear as catabolism at the
physiological level, R.S. also spoke of biological processes that take effect
because of the influence of prebirth soul powers in anabolism. In GA 316 they
were
said to be osteogenesis, myogenesis and the double warmth order. He
spoke of them also in his Occult Physiology (27 March 1911):
The conscious I organization
influences the human being from one side, the unconscious I organization from
the other... . Whilst the blood, inwardly quick and mobile, follows the
activity of the I as an adaptable tool, the
other pole, the skeletal system, withdraws from the I's active mobility
to such effect that the I has no conscious awareness of everything that happens
in the skeletal system, i.e. that all processes in the skeletal system are
entirely beneath the surface of the I occurrences that are actually
conscious. Those processes are in accord with our I activity, but they are as
dead as our blood processes are live; they are therefore essentially part of
the
processes of which the I has no conscious awareness, and which only rise
in stages from the unconscious to the conscious level. If we take a detailed
look at the skeletal system in its overall function in the human organism,
we have to note that it withdraws everywhere from conscious life, and
most of all from all organ systems.
With the dead skeletal system, emphasis is put on the configuration of
the whole organism. These unconscious soul processes, which also act on the blood,
are not accessible to our intentions but depend on the macrocosm
and are mainly active prior to birth.
Whereas these solid inclusions in conscious life, i.e. in thinking, come
to expression in the blood in a kind of mobile, active salt deposition process,
the principle preparing the I comes to expression in the skeletal system in
such a way that the macrocosm creates our skeletal system so that it
consists largely of deposited salts. These are the resting element in us, the
other, opposite pole to the highly active processes in the salt deposition
processes
in the blood. As human beings we
are thus made thinkers in processes coming from two sides - unconsciously on
one side, as our skeletal system develops, and consciously on the other, going
through the same processes in
full consciousness that in the organism present as the deposition
processes of which we are able to say that they are inwardly active. The salts
produced as we think must immediately be dissolved again and removed through
sleep. For conscious thinking, we use the kind of salt production
processes that have their model in the release of calcium from albumin and are
always reversible. R.S. relates salt deposition in the skeleton to the cosmic
thinking in us of which we are not conscious. The tremendous
metamorphosis of bone, cartilage and regular connective tissue on one hand, and
reticular connective tissue, reticular organs (RES) and blood on the other
cannot
be discussed here. This greater polarity between blood and bone is reflected
within the blood in the lesser polarity between inhibitory/transport proteins
and red blood cells. The latter represent the Sal process in the blood just
as the bones do in the greater system outlined. Permanent deposition of
salts in the bones metamorphoses into deposition of hemoglobin in the red
cells. These cells are much more advanced towards death than bones are.
Their shape is also a purer reflection of the spherical form of the
macrocosm. The unconscious, macrocosmic thinking process, the world thinking in
us, comes to expression in bone salts, and in metamorphosed form in the red
blood cells.
In the same lecture course, R.S. also refers to an unconscious
macro-cosmic feeling process. Prebirth feeling makes the protein form of the
bone coagulate just as prebirth thinking causes salts to be deposited in bones.
In GA 316, these organ-generating feeling processes are referred to as
"coagulation to form muscle“, here as coagulation into gelatin. Both have
in common that proteins condense to an insoluble form, the image of
coagulation.
Finally, R.S. also spoke in the Prague lectures of a macrocosmic process
of will impulses, a process acting upwards from below in us and deeply
unconscious in body creation.
Compounds that form, which we may call products of inner combustion
processes, inner oxidation processes, are to be found everywhere in the
organism. Insofar as they are below the threshold of consciousness and have
nothing to do with conscious life, they belong to the opposite pole on the
other side, which is closed off from anything that can influence conscious
life.
The effect of a conscious inner life that is open to the surrounding
world is reflected in the protein or Sulfur side of the blood. Here a constant
change between salting out and shrouding, activation and inhibition of
coagulation
and inflammatory processes can be seen in the substances. The rapid
changes in the inner life correlate with these rapid substance processes that
are always balanced out again by counter processes. The action of the
unconscious macrocosm's soul processes, which are also called thinking, feeling
and will intent, is in bodily terms reflected on the cellular, the Sal side.
The side where the blood is open and alive to the environment is closed
to the conscious soul processes and vice versa.
If we consider this, the blood will indeed be full of significance for
us, presenting as a very special fluid for, on one hand, the blood shows its
essential nature as turning to the lowest, humblest realm below us, showing itself
to
be a form of matter capable of external chemical processes (i.e. O2
uptake; HBvL) so that it may be an instrument for the I. On the other hand,
blood is the substance that is more protected, to enable it to achieve inward
processes that-cannot be achieved anywhere else for all other organ
processes are necessary for this. The most subtle processes of the highest
order that are stimulated from the depth of our organism combine in the blood
with physical and chemical processes of the kind we see all around us in
the world. In no other substance does the physical, material world we perceive
through the senses come together so directly, demanding the presence, the
activity of systems of forces that lie outside the sense-perceptible world -
but only in our blood substance.
The Goethean ordering system for the blood and the spiritual laws
illuminate one another. The cellular aspect opens the blood to the
(unconscious) environment and is the instrument for an unconscious, macrocosmic
inner life. The serum aspect shuts itself off from the processes of the
material environment, enveloping the imponderables connected with the
environment, which makes it the instrument for an independent, conscious inner
life. At first sight, it may seem surprising to speak of the higher, conscious
inner activity that uses the body as related to the lower blood processes which
are open to metabolism and, conversely, see the body-creating, sleeping inner
activity
as the basis of the aspect in the blood that is open to the environment.
It reflects the polarity of life processes and soul processes, a polarity we
find again and again. We perceive the archetype of the I organization in the
organism - processes going in opposite directions are held in balance, thus
creating the conditions for further development.
VIII The blood as 'embryonic' and 'image' organ
Considering the individual elements of the blood within the proposed
ordering system, we have so far seen progressive devitalization of cell
elements (from the lymphocytes, which are close to the stem cells, to the old
granulocytes, anuclear thrombocytes and finally red blood cells, which are
anuclear and contain little plasma), representing the Sal pole, and the system
of blood proteins (specific and nonspecific inflammatory proteins, coagulation
proteins and inhibitory/transport proteins) representing the Sulfur pole. For
the latter, an attempt was made to present the metamorphosis from ionized salts
to albumin as the general enveloping protein and the specialized
inhibitory/transport proteins. In shrouding the metals, which in themselves are
toxic, the system reaches its Sulfur pole. This was characterized by the
quality of "formless dissolution" and "interiorization of
imponderables“, just as the Sal pole was seen to show "dying into
form" and "openness to outside world influences“.
Another ordering system to be considered is the metamorphosis of blood
elements from those that are close to the stem cells and therefore embryonic,
and those that need a long process of development to be functionally mature.
In a lecture given on 29 October 1921 (GA 208), R.S. spoke of the
quality of image and embryonic organs. Embryonic here refers to all organs and
parts of organs that stay close to their original state in embryonic
development. They do not go through many form processes or stages of
differentiation. The polar opposite to this are image organs, which go through
a long process of development to become functionally mature, m our system, the
three-stage development of red blood cells strikes us as remarkable. Nucleated
pro-erythroblasts with HbG during extra-embryonic hemopoiesis, fetal anuclear
red cells with HbF, and only then the adult red cells. This three-stage
metamorphosis is consecutive, with hemopoiesis becoming more and more open to
the environment, and showing increasing functional quality. This recalls the
three-stage development of the long bones, which have the same mesenchymal
origin as the blood.
The blood proteins - albumin - also have at least two stages of
development, with fetal AFP the precursor of adult albumin. (We can be quite
certain that there must be another blood protein during the early embryonic
period.)
Both the sulfuric blood protein and the red cells with their fixed form
thus need a long developmental process, they are image organs. The I
organization shows itself as a thinking process in both aspects, in the red
blood cells
as image of prebirth thinking, in the production of salts and release of
albumin as image of awake, conscious thinking. R.S. characterized the middle
principle in this system, polar to the image organs, as "organically
materially young“, "not getting old“. In this, he said, the human will can
develop:
The will end of man is an organic development that has not come to
completion... What is organic development that has not come to completion? An
embryo, for this can develop further.
In the blood organ, we see this embryonic life in the immune system
which is capable of development, remaining open to future organic development
with its learning capacity. Recently, lymphoid bone marrow stem cells
have also been found in the blood. These put even greater emphasis on
the embryonic aspect. These embryonic organic spheres are necessary if there is
to be future development. In fact, speaking in terms of substance, they
provide the potential for a further incarnation. Throughout the
organism, we have image organs with sequential metamorphoses, and these always
show the connection with life that has become physical reality, and we find
embryonic organs that provide the potential for the will. The relationship
between immune system and will intent was inferred from the sequence of
elements crystallizing out - coagulating - warming in the earlier part.
The same relationship between functional systems in the blood and soul
qualities emerges where we have taken quite a different route. The image organs
at either pole of the system need a long developmental process before
they are wholly the image of creative power. Only then will they serve
the nerves and senses in sensory perception and thinking. The embryonic
elements serve the will because developmental potential persists at the organic
level that has not yet come to full development.
This vital experience in matter (in the embryonic organs) does not allow
consciousness to arise. This, however, makes it possible for us to develop the
will, so that we destroy matter here (image organs), but retain seeds here,
when matter drops away at death, seeds that hold the potential for the earth
lives to come.
IX The aspects of the human being in the blood organ
So far, we gained new indications for the Sal - Mercury - Sulfur order
of the world, for the image and embryonic nature of the organism, and
discovered the influence soul processes have on the blood organ. Again and
again we refer to the lectures on Occult Physiology. Here, Sterner also spoke
of the physiological effects of the aspects of the human being. The blood as a
whole may be the organ of the I organization, but the whole human being must
also be reflected in it:
In this blood system... we have to see the physical instrument of our I.
We know that our I... has as its foundation a physical body, an ether body and
an astral body.... As this I presupposes those three aspects of the human being
in spiritual terms, so its physical organ, the blood system, presupposes
such images of the astral and the etheric body in physical terms. (23 March
1911)
A little later, reference is also made to a process that is below the
sphere of life:
We descend from the life processes to processes of the inherently
physical when the food substances we have taken in are transported to many
different parts of the physical body.
Reference is thus made to the inhibitory/transport system in the blood.
This comes closest to reflecting the physical body in the blood. Its function
lies in its ability to flow, its buffering quality, and the ability to take up
substances and release them. It is remarkable that these functions
become possible through the combined actions of blood cells and serum. We
remember: red cells provide 88% of the buffer capacity of the blood.
The synchronous coexistence of cells and fluid provides for the special
flow capacity, for transport and inhibition.
The coagulation function arises in a different way. Concurrent
coexistence of humoral and cellular parts is inhibited, remaining mere
potential up to the moment of injury. Then a cascade-type sequence begins. In
strict order,
the coagulation process evolves consecutively step by step; the counter
processes begin at the same time, but also are consecutive. Concurrent
coexistence is abandoned, with a strict sequence taking over. The goal of the
process
is maintenance of the organism, healing of the injured surface. No
living organism can exist unless there are limits set in both processes and
space. On the microscopic scale, we see the cell membranes, the lysosomes,
etc.; on
the macroscopic scale, the skin surface, which marks both living
openness and outer limit. The coagulation system of the blood with its
surface-preserving function and its sequential processes may thus be seen as a
reflection
of the ether body in the blood.
In the complement system of local inflammation, the sequential nature of
individual processes is similar to that seen in the coagulation system. At the
same time, granulocytes and monocytes secrete cytokines. Here, the purely
sequential order is abandoned. The function of this nonspecific inflammatory
system is to kill foreign life in the organism and remove it through pus.
Increased mobility, phagocytosis, elimination of inorganic and organic poisons
point to activities under the control of the human astral body. This, then, is
where the astral body is reflected in the blood.
In the specific immune system it has so far been only possible, with
some effort, to establish the strict sequence of some processes. Reference is
made to a network of interconnected processes. Every individual process is also
counter-process to another. In the coagulation system the tools for activation
and inhibition are clearly distinct. In the concerted effort of immunization
there are no separate "helper" and "suppressor" cells, but
every individual process is both at the same time. Every new infection results
in a new imprint, new immunization. This learning process bases on the
embryonic part of the blood. Our I organization brings order into the concerted
effort. We are thus able to see how the four aspects of the human being leave
their imprint in the four basic functions of the blood.
X Prospect
In no other substance does the physical, sense-perceptible, material
world encounter another, inner world that presupposes the existence and
function of systems of forces beyond sensory perception as directly as it does
in our blood substance. (27 March 1911)
An attempt has been made to show the relationship between the fourfold
order of the blood with its four basic physiological systems and the aspects of
the essential human being:
The specific inflammatory system as the instrument of I activity in the blood, with processes
acting in concert.
The nonspecific inflammatory system as the instrument of soul activity
in the blood, with processes both in concert and consecutive.
The coagulation system as the instrument of the ether body in the blood,
with processes in sequence.
The inhibitory/transport system as the instrument of the physical body
in the blood, with processes concurrent.
In this ordering system both individual and macrocosmic prebirth
activity shine out in thinking, feeling and will intent. We thus discover the
threefold order of the blood, which reveals the Sal - Mercury - Sulfur forces
with
their configuring and process-ordering activities. The twofold order of
the blood between the more embryonic, live lymph system and the image organs
which develop through a sequence of metamorphoses, showed relationship
to past and future.
An attempt was also made to describe the sevenfold activity of life
processes in the blood. The unbelievably differentiated nature of the blood,
which as a whole is an organ of the I, was thus beginning to emerge. In the
daily routine of medical work, blood tests play an important role in diagnosis
and choice of treatment. So far, it has not been realized that every change in
the blood necessarily also means a change in soul processes.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum