Albumen
This topic page covers albumen, the concept of chaos or akasha, and the modern scientific concept of vitamins, all in the context of the working together of the etheric formative forces in the living component in the four kingdoms of nature.
Aspects
- albumen (protein) as an example of the workings of etheric formative forces
- the kingdoms of nature with a living component (vegetable, animal and human organisms) are based on proteins or albuminous substances. Materialistic science and chemistry looks at mineral protein as made up of its molecules and atoms only, and ignores and erroneously disregards the etheric formative forces. (1920-04-01-GA312)
- vegetable albumen neutralises animal and human albumen; it impairs or abolishes (partially or wholly) the functions of animal albumen. The two forms of albumen are polar opposites, each annihilates the effects of the other. (1920-04-01-GA312)
- in an (animal or) human organism, the four organic groups bladder, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart play an important role of bringing together cosmic etheric formative influences, and together (in their fourfold cooperation) these organs are the creators of human albumen. Therefore human albumen only works the way it does within the sphere of influence of these four organic systems.
- vegetable albumen is under influence of the four elements: oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and sulphur (the mediator between these four). These elements contains the same formative forces as are individualised in the human organism through the four main organ groups, so their workings are not limited to the forces and attributes recognised by modern chemistry, but these elements possess formative forces with activities which affect one another mutually.
- in albumen (both animal and vegetable), carbon, oxygen, hydrogen combine with nitrogen through sulphur, which is the bearer of spirit and acts within the albumen as the mediator between the spiritual formative element diffused throughout the universe and the physical element (1924-06-11-GA327)
- the most important substance that forms the germ of a new organism, whether it be of plant, animal or Man (1923-12-30-GA233)
- terminology: albumen, albumin, protein
Vitamins
- Vitamin is a term, concept, label that contemporary mineral science came up with to denote that the life-giving property (eg in milk) cannot be found by purely chemical analysis of mineral substances; however it does not explain how or say anything more about it. Vita means life; min is connected with 'make'; therefore, vitamin 'makes life.' (1923-12-01-GA351)
Chaos (or akasha)
- chaos is an ancient Greek term already appearing in the Book of Genesis, the Indian term is akasha or achaos.. that is used to denote the beginning from a sort of cloud mist that contains the seed of all things. It is from the chaos that the physical arises. From the physical sense world, it appears as void and waste, but spiritual perception shows how the harmonies of the spheres resounding through it. (1907-10-19-GA284, 1907-10-XX-GA284)
- albumen contained in the body is still to some extent organised, however albumen that forms the basis for propagation is in a condition of complete disorganisation whereby structures are broken down and substances are reduced to 'chaos'. That way the albumen is no longer subject to the Earth but comes under the influence of the whole sphere of the cosmos, and the tiny albumen particle becomes an image instilled by the cosmos and the basis for reproduction (1923-12-30-GA233)
- the physical arises from chaos and goes back into chaos
- The physical world must be seen as a perpetual entering into chaos and again an emergence from chaos. As soon as anything enters into the realm of the living it must always pass through chaos. (1924-04-21-GA316)
- Homer's Golden Chain symbolizes the path from 'chaos' to that which is called the universal quintessence, in ten steps of successive 'densification or coagulation'; so it represents a chain from the highest spiritual influences, in multiple steps, down to the substances and kingdoms we see on Earth.
- examples:
- mineral kingdom
- an earthly mineral quartz crystal retains its hexagonal structure, that it received from cosmic etheric formative forces that then came to a standstill and became Ahrimanic or frozen in dead mineral matter (1924-04-21-GA316)
- plant kingdom (or more in general all living kingdoms in nature)
- in the formation of a seed, matter is driven out to such a degree that the cosmos can intervene with its etheric formative forces. The basis of seed formation is that earthly matter tears itself away from the principle of structure and passes over into chaos, becomes chaotic, contains no more forces of matter in itself, no more earthly structure is present, so that then etheric forces from the cosmos can assert itself.In the seed formation the chaos 'earthly nothingness' asserts itself over against the earthly and the cosmos works into this 'nothingness'. (1924-04-21-GA316)
- human kingdom
- human embryo in the mothers womb, or 'the ovum as chaos': the purpose of fertilisation and the processes in the mother's body is to produce this state of chaos in the ovum, within the mother's organism there is matter which has been completely broken down. The fertilized egg and simple embryo then merges with the spiritual seed of the physical body (1924-03-29-GA239)
- the human threefold soul and the inner centre in the brain as a source of destruction - see Matter is destroyed in the brain
- Through the faculty of human thinking, within the human being matter is completely dissolved into nothingness. The essence of matter is fully destroyed. Within our inner being matter, and with it all the laws of nature, is annihilated. Material life, together with all the laws of nature, is thrown back into chaos, and out of the chaos a new nature is able to arise, saturated with the moral impulses we ourselves lay into it. (1921-09-23-GA207) - see also Seeds for future worlds
- mineral kingdom
Illustrations
Schema FMC00.541: provides a synthesic overview from Rudolf Hauschka and Ernst Hagemann describing the four main types of vitamins as the workings of the etheric formative forces (or ethers) mapping to the four elements and elementals of nature. See also Spectrum of elements and ethers.
Rudolf Steiner described vitamins as a term that contemporary mineral science came up with to denote the life-giving property beyond purely chemical analysis of mineral substances. (1923-12-01-GA351).
Lecture coverage and references
1920-04-01-GA312
Pass in review all the substances at present known to us, and active in the human organism; and you will find that (with two exceptions) all these are found in combination with other substances within the human organism: as a rule we find compounds and solutions. Two only appear in their pure state within us; these are oxygen and nitrogen. So these main components of the atmosphere play also particular parts within our human bodies. Their interactions form as it were the very core of the substances in us. Oxygen and nitrogen are linked with the functions of the human organism; and they act as the only elements operating in their pure state, and not modified or deflected by other substances combined with them in the human organic sphere. So there is not only great significance in the actual presence of external substances, traceable within the human organism; we must also follow up the manner of their occurrence, and consider whether their operation remains free, or is bound up with something else.
For the peculiar thing is that within the human organism, matter acquires special affinities to other forms of matter, and specific kinship. So if we introduce a substance into the organism which already contains a certain other substance, these affinities can become apparent. Follow this up, and you will come to a quite definite revelation, which spiritual science must point out.
You are aware that vegetable, animal and human organisms are alike based on proteins, on albuminous substances. You know that, in the terms of contemporary chemistry, the main ingredients of albumen are the four main natural substances, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and, in addition, sulphur, as, so to speak, a homeopathic agent in the operations of the other four.
It is necessary to form an idea of how the internal function of albumen is brought about; how is protein made?
Contemporary chemical science must obviously and conformably to its premises reply: Oh well, any such substance has the configuration proper to its inherent forces. It follows that one identifies things which are actually not at all the same, or that are not similar as much as is assumed. Sometimes a certain dissimilarity is recorded, and in any case the identity is invalid. In consequence of the application of atomistic theory to the structure of albumens, vegetable albumen and animal albumen have been viewed as very much alike, and up to a certain degree at least chemically identical. But that is absolutely not the case. A closer and more exact study of our human organism recognises the fact that vegetable albumen neutralises animal and more especially human albumen; that the two are in fact polar opposites, and that each annihilates in an intimate way the effects of the other. It is strange indeed that we must admit: animal albumen is of such a nature in its functions that these functions are impaired, abolished partially or even wholly abolished, by those of vegetable albumen.
And this leads us to the question: Well, what is the exact difference between what appears as albumen in the animal organism or especially in that of Man, and what appears as the same substance in the organism of plants?
It is in your recollection that I have had frequently to mention the important part played in relation to all extra-telluric meteorological processes [editor: re cosmic etheric formative forces] by the four organic systems, bladder, kidneys, liver, lungs, and their complement, the heart. Those four organic groups are most important in determining how man is affected by the meteorological happenings in the external world. Now: What is the significance and office of these four systems? These four organic systems are nothing less than the creators of the structure of human albumen. So we must study them, and not the atomistic and molecular forces in the albumen substance. In our inquiry “Why is albumen what it is?” we must conceive of its internal structure as the resultant of forces emanating from these four organic systems. Albumen can be called the product of this fourfold co-operation. With this we state a remarkable fact in respect of the interiorisation of external forces within Man. What contemporary chemistry looks for in the actual structure of the substance in question, we look for and find in the organic systems of the human body. Therefore the characteristic structure of human albumen cannot conceivably exist in the external terrestrial sphere; it cannot remain unless it is under the influence of these four organic systems. In other conditions it is bound to change its structure.
But it is otherwise with vegetable albumen. Vegetable albumen is, so it seems, not controlled by any analogous group of organs, but it is under another influence; namely, of the four elements, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and also under that of the meteorologically omnipresent mediator between these four main elements, namely sulphur.
In vegetable albumen, these four elements dispersing themselves throughout the atmosphere, perform the same office as the lungs, heart, liver and so forth, within Man. External nature contains in these four substances the same formative forces as are individualised in the human organism through the four main groups.
It is important to remember that in speaking of oxygen, hydrogen and so forth, we should not limit their meaning to the inherent forces and attributes recognised by modern chemistry, but that we should conceive these elements as possessing formative forces, with activities which affect one another mutually, and by which they contribute to the furnishing of the earth sphere.
1923-01-13-GA220
[Lime and silicon]
Now all these substances of which I have spoken, sulphur, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen are united in albumen. This will enable us to see more clearly into the nature of seed formation. Whenever carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen are present in leaf, blossom, calyx or root they are always united to other substances in some form or other. They are dependent upon these other substances.
There are only two ways in which they can become independent.
- One is when the hydrogen carries all individual substances out into the expanses of the cosmos and dissolves them into the general chaos; and
- the other is when the hydrogen drives the basic element of the protein (for albumen) into the seed formation and there makes them independent of each other so that they become receptive of the influences of thecosmos. In the tiny seed, there is chaos, and in the wide periphery of the cosmos there is another chaos, and whenever the chaos at the periphery works upon the chaos within the seed, new life comes into being.
1923-12-30-GA233
note on albumen in a state of 'chaos', with the earthly forces broken up, and under influence of cosmic etheric formative forces
Now there are other forces on the Earth besides. These other forces come from the whole environment of the Earth, from the far circumference. Imagine for a moment that you are going out and out, away from the Earth into unmeasured distances. From these unmeasured distances forces work upon the Earth, working inwards to it from every direction. Yes, it is a fact, such forces do exist, coming from all directions of the Universe and working in everywhere towards the centre of the Earth. It is possible to gain quite a clear and concrete picture of them in the following way.
You will remember that the most important substance that forms the basis everywhere of the organism, whether it be of plant, animal or man, is albumen. And albumen also forms the basis for the germ of a new plant, animal or human organism. From a fructified germ cell proceeds that which evolves into an organism, and the substance of the germ is albumen.
In these days, instead of pursuing true science, men build up all kinds of imaginations, and they make a picture to themselves of this albumen as composed of substances in intricate chemical combination. It is composed, so they say, of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and a trace too of phosphorus, all in complicate combination. And so the atomist comes to see in albumen the example par excellence of chemical combination. The atoms and molecules have to be thought of as arranged in a most complicated manner. And in the mother-animal or mother-plant arises this complicated albumen-molecule, or whatever you choose to call it; it develops further and the new animal comes to birth from it, arising, that is, purely through inheritance.
From the spiritual point of view, all this is sheer nonsense. The truth is that the albumen of the mother animal is not a complicated chemical combination at all, it is all broken up, destroyed and reduced to chaos.
The albumen that is otherwise contained in the body is still to some extent organised, but albumen that forms the basis for propagation is distinguished by this very characteristic, that it is in a condition of complete disorganisation. The substances that are contained in it are reduced to chaos and are in no sort of combination, they are tossed and jumbled together to form a mere accumulation without order or proportion; and on this very account the albumen is no longer subject to the Earth. So long as the albumen can by some means or other be held together in inward cohesion, so long is it subject to the forces that work from the centre of the Earth. The moment the albumen is inwardly split up and destroyed, it comes under the influence of the whole sphere of the Cosmos. Forces work in upon it from every quarter. And then we have the tiny particle of albumen that forms the basis for reproduction. This tiny particle is an image of the entire Cosmos, because albumen substance has been split up, destroyed and reduced to chaos — converted, that is, into cosmic dust and thereby fitted to become exposed to the working of the entire Cosmos.
Of all this men have today simply no knowledge at all. They imagine the old hen has the complicated albumen. This is included in the egg, and thence arises the new hen. It is the albumen continued, it has gone on evolving. Then the germinal substance is developed once again; and so it goes on from hen to hen. In actual fact it is not so. Every time the transition takes place from one generation to the next, the albumen is exposed to the whole Cosmos.
On the one hand, therefore we have the earthly substances, subject to the earthly or central forces. But we can also imagine these earthly substances exposed in certain circumstances to the forces that work in from all quarters, from the farthest limits of the universe. The latter forces are the ones that work in the human etheric body. The etheric body is subject to the forces of the Cosmos. These are real conceptions of physical body and etheric body
Chaos
1907-10-19-GA284
is called 'On Chaos and Cosmos'
When we transplant ourselves into the condition of space (when space was still altogether spiritual) and we trace its condensation out of the laws of this space itself, then we shall clearly feel the beautiful words of the Bible: “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of the Godhead brooded and weaved over the depths.”
Imagine how originally the pure, spiritual transparent space was there. What happened in this pure transparent space? In this same space is also the extended gaseous air. As the thoughts that rise from our soul, when they are spoken in the word, bring the air around us into vibration, and every word shapes itself into forms in the air, quite silently and unseen by us, so did the Spirit of God hover over the waters. Into the waters the creating words of the Godhead were spoken. Now let us imagine the empty widespread cosmic space; fertile, rich in seeds, and resounding into it, the Word of the Godhead, working formatively into this space. Then we hear the words of the Bible. This Chaos, this cloud mist of the earth that was emerging was still waste and void: and the Spirit of the Godhead worked and wove, brooding thereover. First was the Spiritual World; then the Chaos revealed to begin with, in a kind of cloudiness, all that was to become. So do we recognize the depths of the religious documents. Human beings must gradually regain the feelings with which we understand such things.
...
... We feel the overwhelming influence of the Chaos that contains the seed of all things, when we let these things work upon us. Thus we can see how comprehensive the idea of Chaos is for anyone who understands it in the right way. It is the Chaos from out of which the physical arises. Whether it be the Greek Philosophy or the Bible, or the Indian Philosophy of the A-Chaos, the Akasha — all this shall remind us that that which was in the beginning works throughout all time. To him who is bound to the sense world, the Chaos appears waste and void.
But he who penetrates it in a spiritual sense can hear the harmonies of the spheres resounding through it. Today it is still possible for single human beings to get a feeling for some of these words that come from the spiritual world. Hence it is the time to speak of these things.
1907-10-XX-GA284
(p107)
.. it can be shown how encompassing the concept of chaos is for those who understand it correctly. All have known what stands behind the physical and out of which the physical is made and born: the chaos. Whether the Greeks called it chaos, whether Genesis depicts it the way we have seen, or whether the Indian philosopher speaks of the achaos, the akasha, the esoteric schools will remind us that it is always the same as what was in the beginning and works through all ages.
see: Spiritual scientific physiology#1924-03-29-GA239
1924-04-21-GA316
Let us try to picture the plants. How do people proceed today when they picture the plants?
There is the soil of the earth. The seed is pictured as being laid into the soil and then the plant grows out of this. People are naive enough to think as follows: Hydrogen is a very simple molecule, consisting of two atoms. All kinds of things are imagined to form combinations. Alcohol is certainly a very complicated molecule. Carbon is there combined with hydrogen and oxygen and then one has something more complex. And now there come still more complicated substances with more and more complicated molecules. There was a period during the eighties and nineties of the last century when the titles of these were very complicated, consisting of more than three lines in length. Yes, the molecule has become terribly complicated! And now still more so. Then it becomes a seed, and a seed is a most highly complicated combination. Then the plant grows out of the seed. But all this is nonsense.
The basis of the seed formation is, in reality, that earthly matter tears itself away from the principle of structure and passes over into chaos, becomes chaotic, contains no more forces of matter in itself. Then, when no earthly structure is present, what is working out of the cosmos can assert itself. The cosmic declares its readiness to mirror the cosmic structure in the minute. In the seed formation the “nothingness” asserts itself over against the earthly and the cosmos works into the nothingness.
[illustration]
Frau Dr. Kolisko could tell you an interesting fact which entirely confirms this. During investigations into the function of the spleen we took small rabbits and excised the spleen. In spite of this the rabbits were quite well. They did not die of the operation, but a long time afterwards, from colds. It was quite possible to see how the rabbits live on without the spleen. When one of the rabbits died, we were able to see what had happened and in the place of the spleen there had appeared tissue which had assumed a decidedly spherical form. What had really happened? We had excised the physical spleen and by doing this had artificially driven earthly substance into chaos, made it accessible to the cosmic forces, and something resembling a seed formation had come into being. There had arisen, in an extremely primitive form, something that resembled the structure of a seed — an image of the cosmos. This quite harmless vivisection, therefore, confirmed a matter of great significance, for this is what appears to spiritual-scientific observation.
Take a quartz crystal. It is an earthly thing.
Why? Why is the quartz crystal an earthly thing, retaining its form really in a very pedantic, rigid way?
The quartz gets its form from an inner force and if you break it apart with a hammer the single parts always retain the tendency to be six-sided prisms, self-contained, six-sided pyramids. This tendency is present. You can as little rid the quartz of this tendency as you can get pedantry out of a man who is pedantic by nature. You may atomize a pedantic person, but he will still remain pedantic. The quartz does not allow itself to come to the point where the cosmos can do anything with its forces. Therefore the quartz has no life.
If the quartz could be pulverized to such a degree that in the single fragments it no longer had the tendency to be governed, in the single fragment, by its own forces, something living and cosmic would grow out of the quartz. This is what happens in the formation of a seed. In the seed, matter is driven out to such a degree that the cosmos can intervene with its etheric forces.
The world must be seen as a perpetual entering into chaos and again an emergence from chaos.
What is contained in quartz also came at one time from the cosmos, but it remained at a standstill, has become Ahrimanic. It no longer exposes itself to the cosmic forces. As soon as anything enters into the realm of the living it must always pass through chaos.
This again is something which will help you to meditate in the sense of medicine. And you can also picture the developed plant—how it grows from leaf to leaf, and so on. You come to the formation of the seed in the fruit. Whereas you otherwise picture the seed plant as brightness it now becomes dark, quite dark. Then again comes the light, when the forces from outside take hold.
In this way, too, you can make an imaginative picture from the being of the plant. When you are aware of an object which you call 'plant', then it is an imaginative meditation. You should not remain in the sphere of the intellectual but in the sphere of the concrete, inner picture. The intellectual element is merely there for the purpose of presenting what is known, in the form of thoughts.
Vitamins
1923-12-01-GA351
The composition of the substance is not the whole matter. Those gentlemen ought to have said to themselves: something else must be in question here. But what did they say? They said: “substance is everything: substance must be everywhere where anything happens.”
Well, yes, but the substances that are there in casein, fat, sugar and salts — well, they do not make milk. So the gentlemen said, evidently there must be a new substance here, in such minute quantities that it cannot be found by chemical analysis. This substance is what people now call — vitamin. Vita means life; min is connected with “make”; therefore, vitamin “makes life.”
[ parenthesis
Once, gentlemen, when Heine wanted to mock at something, he said: “There are people who wish, for instance, to explain poverty, the cause of poverty. Well, the simplest way is to say: ‘poverty comes from being poor!’” One has found another term, but one has not explained anything! I was once in a society where people discussed the question where what is “comic” came from. Some of them had arrived at quite interesting ideas as to the source of the “comic” — of what one laughs at. Then however, someone got up and went to the platform in a way that one knew at once — “he has the feeling he has a great deal to say.” So then he brought forward his ideas of “comic” and said: — “The ‘comic’ originates solely from the fact that man possesses a ‘vis-comica.’ ‘Vis’ is force — ‘comica’ is comic. Man has the ‘comic force.’ This is where what is ‘comic’ originates.” This is just as though one should say in economics: where does money come from? Money comes from the money-making force. Nothing is explained in this way. Well, in economics one would at once remark that anyone saying that money comes from the money-making-force was a queer fellow!
]
But in science people do not notice it when someone asks: where does the life-giving property of milk come from? and then answers: from the vitamin!
That is the same as saying that poverty comes from being poor! But it is not noticed. People think they have said something wonderful, but in truth nothing at all has been said. And that, you see, is what I should like to call the disturbing element in modern scientific methods. People claim to have something to say; they announce it in gigantic words, and everybody believes what is said. But if this continues further in the history of the world, things will come to a point where everything will dry up and perish. For the world depends on the fact that something can be done, not that things are merely discussed and many words made about them. Words must signify what is there in reality.
...
But there is something further to be considered in this article. This doctor has indeed achieved something of great value with her honey treatments. What she has done in her practical work is really admirable. But when she begins to think it all over on scientific lines, the result is really nil. Further she says this: “It is much to be desired that these results of our experiments should be made known as widely as possible, and that more honey should be given, especially to the young ... For the moment our communications only give the results of our practical experiences; but we do not doubt that with the further development of the theory of vitamins the pharmacologists and physiologists will give their attention to the problem of the working of honey on the human organism.”
The author also says at the beginning: “I feel obliged to give this account of the effects of honey-cures from the medical point of view. Our good results encourage us to seek their deeper connections, as I am well aware that I am far from having penetrated their innermost nature.”
It is evident from her own words that this doctor is modest enough to admit that the whole theory of vitamins does not enable her to reach the real heart of the matter.
1924-03-01-GA316
touches on the etheric forces in milk, and the discovery of 'vitamins'
What are the methods of the natural science upon which medicine is based today?
Some tissue or other — it really does not matter very much which — is taken from some part of the organism, perhaps from the heart or the liver. The outer structure and make-up of this tissue are then examined. But this tells us nothing about the organ as it actually is, within the human organism. Suppose I have, here, a knife, and, there, a knife. I examine them. This is a knife, and that is a knife, only the one, when I examine its form, has a blunt edge on one side and a cutting edge on the other, and the blade is in a handle. The same could be said of the other knife — therefore the net result is, here, a knife; there, a knife. But to find the difference between a table knife and a razor I must go beyond this kind of examination. I must relate the knives to something that is a whole. Regarded externally, a razor might also be a table knife; therefore, merely from the form, I cannot know whether I have to do with a table knife or with a razor. Each thing must be observed in its whole nexus. Out of the kind of observation that is applied today to an organ, one cannot know anything about the significance of this organ in reality. It must always be regarded in the whole nexus of things. Mere examination of the structure and the make-up of an organ leads nowhere. The human being must be studied with quite different methods from those of chemistry which merely examines the chemical affinities and forces. In this respect, people are terribly naive today.
In a certain physiological institute, experiments were made to see how mice could be nourished with milk. The result was splendid, for the mice flourished and became fat and big. At the same time, for the purpose of proving that there is something more in milk than its component parts, these components were separated and given to the mice. They perished within three or four days and could not be kept alive. And then people said: Milk does not only contain its known components, but it contains, as well, another substance — the vitamin. They were obliged to affirm the existence of yet another, very fine substance, namely, the vitamin.
The point of importance is not the discovery of such a 'substance' but that to take the separate components of the milk is like taking a clock and looking at the brass, the silver, the other metals in it, the glass and so on. Yes, but the brass, the silver, the glass and all the other metals do not make a clock. The clock depends upon what the mind of the mechanic makes out of these substances. And in the case of milk and its components we are thinking with the mind of the mechanic, when we are concerned with the fact that earthly qualities are contained within these components — qualities which they get from the earth. Up to a certain point of time the peripheric forces from the etheric body are still present, as well as the earthly components. People must finally bring themselves to accept these things. It is not so much a question of things being hidden, and then ‘found’.
The discovery of vitamins, for example, simply confirms what exists. Quite a different mode of observation must become current.
Suppose you are eating too many potatoes. You will never find out anything with the ordinary methods of investigation. It will be useless to try to ascertain the effect of potatoes in the human organism by computing the quantity of carbohydrates. The other carbohydrates which are present, for example, not in roots but in leaves or in fruits, are worked up in the digestive tract. There is something very remarkable about the potato. The potato passes with its forces so intensely into the human organism, that, what in the case of the bean happens while still within the digestive tract, happens in the case of the potato only in the brain. In the brain, too, processes of nourishment are continually taking place. I am only indicating these things in order to speak in greater detail later on. A person who eats too many potatoes may, under certain circumstances, overwork his brain. He transfers processes which ought to take place below the brain to the brain itself. It will only be possible to get something from medical science for hygiene and for social life in general by learning the relations of the human being to the substances around him, not from their chemical make-up but from their world connections. Whether a substance appears in leaf or in root constitutes a fundamental difference. It is much more important to know from which part of the plant a substance comes than to know whether it contains carbohydrates. Roots are more connected with the head organization of man; flowers and leaves more with the lower man. The chemical make-up really plays no outstanding part. The relations of the human being to the surrounding world must be learned from quite other things if we really want to understand the curative and the disease-producing factors, the disease itself, and its remedy. The heed that is paid to the indications given by abstract chemistry has really, little by little, buried all knowledge of the human being, because knowing the chemical make-up of a substance does not tell us anything about the real relations of man to the surrounding world.Take another example ..
Dr. Streicher: Perhaps I may point out certain prevailing tendencies in outer science — in the use of artificial manures and synthetic materials? Having succeeded in the synthetic fabrification of nitrogen products, they are now boasting the discovery of the synthesis of protein. They find it tedious to have to go via the plants in gaining protein. There is already a movement on foot to short circuit this “roundabout way” of the plant, and to feed the animals on synthetic nitrogen manure directly.
It may sound strange, but scientists have made investigations on these lines. They set great store by the synthetic urea which is added as a concentrated foodstuff to the ordinary hay, as cattle fodder. It has also been tried on sheep. The idea is that certain bacteria live in the paunch of the animal, and that these bacteria will disintegrate the urea and transform it into albumen or protein. I think the danger is very real. If these experiments are continued — if it becomes habitual among farmers to give urea and other synthetic foods — the present symptoms of deterioration in our stock will go from bad to worse.
Dr. Steiner: True results can never follow from experiments conducted in this way. In the sphere of vitality — if I may so express it — there is always the law of inertia. That is to say, it may not appear in the present generation or in the next, but it will in the third. The vitalising influence goes on beyond the first few generations. If you restrict your investigations to the present and do not extend them over several generations, you get a completely false picture. Then, when you do observe the next generation but one, you turn your attention to quite other causes than the real ones, namely, the feeding of the grandparent beasts. Vitality cannot be broken down at once. It is surely broken, but only in succeeding generations.
Dr. Streicher: In studying this question last year, I came upon a piece of work that gained publicity in England during the war — I mean the researches of the English botanist, Bottomley. Bottomley discovered that there are certain plants which cannot absorb mineral manure directly. If you make a solution of nutritive salts, certain plants cannot live in it for long. On the other hand, he observed that if a certain bacterial life was brought about in the soil, substances were thereby formed which he could not quite get hold of chemically. He puts them side by side with the “vitamins” of the biologists. Adding these substances in imponderable quantities to the nutritive salt solution, he finds that the plants unfold a quite extraordinary life. The substances he thus produces he describes as 'auxines', life-kindling substances. During the war, when England was obliged to till the soil for the growth of cereals, this 'humogen', as it was named by Bottomley, was produced in large quantities and added to the earth. In certain cases it had an extraordinary effect; in other cases the effect was absent.
Ernst Hagemann - book 'Elementals'
In a book about elemental beings, one shouldn't forget the vitamins, because the two are closely connected.
The presence of vitamins in foods supposedly increases their value, whereas a lack of vitamins in the food of men and animals results in disease.
If one connects the nature and significance of the 'useful' elemental beings with this complex of problems, it is easy to see that the four to six main groups of vitamins correspond to the four groups of 'useful' elemental beings.
- Vitamin A is said to occur in animal fats, butter and milk fat, and plant pigments. It is readily destroyed upon exposure to heat, light, and air (Ency. Brit. Vol. 10, p.467), although it can survive very high temperatures in the absence of light and oxygen. Large numbers of fire spirits are enchanted in fat, and because of their warmth-nature they are not driven away if one brings in more of their comrades.
- Vitamin B1 is said to occur in cereal graul husks, the silver skin of rice seeds, and yeast, among other places, and it is not affected by long cooking in slightly acidic mixtures, although in alkaline mixtures it is sensitive to heating under high pressure, and to dessication, pickling and smoking. It is interesting that large numbers of sylphs are enchanted in seeds, which are copies of the macrocosm, and mediators of the building plass of various species (RS lecture no 5549). Since the sylphs in seed husks are not sensitive to stomach acid, they only become released from enchantment in the alkaline juices in the small intestine. It is a good idea to include seed husks in one's diet.
- Vitamin C is said to occur in many vegetables and in all kinds of ripe fruits. It is very sensitive to the influence of oxygen and long heating, and it slowly disappears from foods when they are dried or stored (Ency. Brit., Vol. 10, p.469). Undines are particularly active in the leaves of plants and in the storage of the assimilate in the rocas. Since undines live in water, the dessication of food stuffs forces them out of their enchantment there.
- Vitamin D is said to occur in frech green leaves, cod liver oil, and in egg yolks, among other places, and it proves to be unsensitive, and its absence leads to disorders in the calcium metabolism of animals and men and to misshapen skeletons in young people and animals (Ency. Brit., vol.10, p.469). The gnomes enchanted in egg yolks are the bearers of the life ether which leads the hereditary for es onwards from generation to generation. Gnomes are relatively sedentary and tenacious once they have been enchanted.
A number of other vitamins have been found, most of which can be thought of as belonging to these four main groups. But if one looks upon the four vitamin groups as the forms of activity of the four groups of 'useful' elemental beings, it is unimportant to know behind which usually very complicated formula they are hiding.
If for instance one considers that it takes a trained chemist several hours of intensive laboratory work to determine the vitamin C or ascorbic acid content of some food, then one cannot expect that he still found the undines in his test tube after all those hours of martyrdom, but the only thing that remained was the vessels in which they had been enchanted. Therefore, one can bot really make any value judgements an the basis of such a chemical analysis, for it is not certain whether the undines left their housing during the analysis or already before a sample was taken for the analysis.
To express it somewhat drastically, one could use the image of an emptied sausage skin - where one can still see what kind of sausage was in the skin, although it is no longer in it.
In my opinion, synthetically prepared vitamins cannot have the same biological effect as the one which is brought about by the analogous four groups of 'useful' elemental beings through their release from enchantment in the digestive process. For in the synthesis of so-called vitamins through a more or less complicated chemical and technological process, a number of elemental beings who are influenced by ahrimanic beings become enchanted in these vitamins, and when they are released from enchantment in the digestive process, they cannot have nearly the same effect as the 'useful' elemental beings who are enchanted in living plants and animals and who are likewise released from enchantment in the digestive process.
